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HISTORY 



KING RICHARD THE FIRST 



ENGLAND, 



BY JACOB ABBOTT. 



KWftD Hnflrabfnfls. 

385') 

YOU K : 
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN SQUARE. 









Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight 
hundred and fifty-seven, hy 

Harper & Brothers, 

in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Southern District of 
New York. 



Copyright, 1885, hy Benjamin Vaughan Abbott, Austin Abbott, 
Lyman Abbott, and Edward Abbott. 



PREFACE. 



The author of this series has made it his spe- 
cial object to confine himself very strictly, even 
in the most minute details which he records, to 
historic truth. The narratives are not tales 
founded upon history, but history itself, without 
any embellishment, or any deviations from the 
strict truth so far as it can now be discovered 
by an attentive examination of the annals writ- 
ten at the time when the events themselves oc- 
curred. In writing the narratives, the author 
has endeavored to avail himself of the best 
sources of information which this country af- 
fords ; and though, of course, there must be 
in these volumes, as in all historical accounts, 
more or less of imperfection and error, there is 
no intentional embellishment. Nothing is stat- 
ed, not even the most minute and apparently 



viii Preface. 



imaginary details, without what was deemed 
good historical authority. The readers, there- 
fore, may rely upon the record as the truth, and 
nothing but the truth, so far as an honest pur- 
pose and a careful examination have been ef- 
fectual in ascertaining it. 



CONTENTS. 

Chapter Tage 

i. king Richard's mother 13 

ii. Richard's earl v life 35 

iii. fair rosamond 52 

iv. accession of richard to the throne 66 

v. the coronation 79 

vi. preparations for the crusade 89 

vii. the embarkation. . 101 

viii. king richard at messina 117 

ix. berengaria 143 

x. the campaign in cyprus 160 

xi. voyage to acre 185 

xii. the arrival at acre 19g 

xiii. difficulties . 204 

xiv. the fall of acre 211 

xv. progress of the crusade 229 

xvi. reverses 249 

xvii. the old man of the mountains 267 

xviii. the battle of jaffa 283 

xix. the truce 297 

xx. the departure from palestine 305 

xxi. richard made captive 312 

xxii. the return to england 324 



ENGRAVINGS. 

Page 

MAP - - 14 

PREACHING THE CRUSADES 19 

PORTRAIT OF KING HENRY II - 49 

VIEW OF WOODSTOCK. 55 

FINAL BURIAL OF ROSAMOND 64 

PORTRAIT OF RICHARD I 90 

RICHARD PURSUING HIS JOURNEY 113 

THE BATTERING-RAM 137 

THE BALLISTA 139 

the catapulta 140 

the letter - 152 

- route of Richard's fleet 164 

king Richard's seal 167 

ramparts of acre 189 

the assault 207 

throwing shells 231 

saladin's present 294 

castle and town of tiernsteign 321 



KING RICHARD I, 



Chapter I. 
King Richard's Mother. 

Richard the Crusader. A quarrelsome king. 

KING RICHARD THE FIRST, the Cru- 
sader, was a boisterous, reckless, and des- 
perate man, and lie made a great deal of noise 
in the world in his day. He began his career 
very early in life by quarreling with his father. 
Indeed, his- father, his mother, and all his broth- 
ers and sisters were engaged, as long as the fa- 
ther lived, in perpetual wars against each other, 
which were waged with the most desperate 
fierceness on all sides. The subject of these 
quarrels was the different possessions which the 
various branches of the family held or claimed 
in France and in England, each endeavoring to 
dispossess the others. In order to understand 
the nature of these difficulties, and also to com- 
prehend fully what sort of a woman Richard's 
mother was, we must first pay a little attention 



14 



King Richard I. 



[1137. 



Richard's kingdom. 



Union of England and Normandy. 



to the map of the countries over which these 
royal personages held sway. 

We have already seen, in another volume of 
this series,* how the two countries of Normandy 
on the Continent, and of England, became united 
under one government. England, however, did 




* History of William the Conqueror. 



1137.] King Richard's Mother. 15 

England was a possession of Normandy. Eleanora of Aquitaine. 

not conquer and hold Normandy ; it was Nor- 
mandy that conquered and held England. The 
relative situation of these two countries is shown 
on the map. Normandy, it will be seen, was 
situated in the northern part of France, being 
separated from England by the English Chan- 
nel. Besides Normandy, the sovereigns of the 
country held various other possessions in France, 
and this French portion of the compound realm 
over which they reigned they considered as far 
the most important portion. England was but 
a sort of appendage to their empire. 

You will see by the map the situation of the 
River Loire. It rises in the centre of France, 
and flows to the westward, through a country 
which was, even in those days, very fertile and 
beautiful. South of the Loire was a sort of 
kingdom, then under the dominion of a young 
and beautiful princess named Eleanora. The 
name of her kingdom was Aquitaine. This lady 
afterward became the mother of Richard. She 
was very celebrated in her day, and has since 
been greatly renowned in history under the 
name of Eleanora of Aquitaine. 

Eleanora received her realm from her grand- 
father. Her father had gone on a crusade with 
his brother, Eleanora's uncle, Raymond, and had 



16 King Richard I. [1137. 



The contemporaries of Eleanora. Royal match-making. 

been killed in the East. Raymond had made 
himself master of Antioch. We shall present- 
ly hear of this Raymond again. The grandfa- 
ther abdicated in Eleanora's favor when she was 
about fourteen years of age. ^There were two 
other powerful sovereigns in France at this time, 
Louis, King of France, who reigned in Paris, 
and Henry, Duke of Normandy and King of 
England. King Louis of France had a son, the 
Prince Louis, who was heir to the crown. El- 
eanora's grandfather formed the scheme of mar- 
rying her to this Prince Louis, and thus to 
unite his kingdom to hers. He himself was 
tired of ruling, and wished to resign his power, 
with a view of spending the rest of his days in 
penitence and prayer. He had been a very 
wicked man in his day, and now, as he was 
growing old, he was harassed by remorse for his 
sins, and wished, if possible, to make some atone- 
ment for them by his penances before he died. 
So he called all his barons together, and laid 
his plans before them. They consented to them 
on two conditions. One was, that Eleanora 
should first see Louis, and say whether she was 
willing to have him for her husband. If not, 
she was not to be compelled to marry him. 
The other condition was, that their country, 



1137.] King Richard's Mother. 17 

The conditions of the marriage. Apparent prosperity of Eleanora. 



Aquitaine, was not to be combined with the do- 
minions of the Kino- of France after the mar- 

o 

ria^, but was to continue a separate and inde- 
pendent realm, to be governed by Louis and 
Eleanora, not as King and Queen of France, but 
as Duke and Duchess of Aquitaine. Both these 
conditions were complied with. The interview 
was arranged between Louis and Eleanora, and 
Eleanora concluded that she should like the king 
for a husband very much. At least she said 
so, and the marriage was concluded. 

Indeed, the match thus arranged for Eleano- 
ra was, in all worldly respects, the most eligible 
one that could be made. Her husband was the 
heir-apparent to the throne of France. His 
capital was Paris, which was then, as now, the 
great centre in Europe of all splendor and gay- 
ety. The father of Louis was old, and not 
likely to live long; indeed, he died very soon 
after the marriage, and thus Eleanora, when 
scarcely fifteen, became Queen of France as well 
as Duchess of Aquitaine, and was thus raised to 
the highest pinnacle of worldly grandeur. 

She was young and beautiful, and very gay 

in her disposition, and she entered at once upon 

a life of pleasure. She had been well educated. 

She could sing the songs of the Troubadours, 

B 



18 King Eichaed I. [1137. 

Eleanora's accomplishments. The Crusades. 

which was the fashionable music of those days, 
in a most charming manner. Indeed, she com- 
posed music herself, and wrote lines to accom- 
pany it. She was quite celebrated for her learn- 
ing, on account of her being able both to read 
and write : these were rare accomplishments for 
ladies in those days. 

She spent a considerable portion of her time 
in Paris, at the court of her husband, but then 
she often returned to Aquitaine, where she held 
a sort of court of her own in Bordeaux, which 
was her capital. She led this sort of life for 
some time, until at length she was induced to 
form a design of going to the East on a crusade. 
The Crusades were military expeditions which 
went from the western countries of Europe to 
conquer Palestine from the Turks, in order to 
recover possession of Jerusalem and of the sep- 
ulchre where the body of Christ was laid. 

It had been for some time the practice for the 
princes and knights, and other potentates of 
France and England, to go on these expedi- 
tions, on account of the fame and glory which 
those who distinguished themselves acquired. 
The people were excited, moreover, to join the 
Crusades by the preachings of monks and her- 
mits, who harangued them in public places and 



1137.] King Richard's Mother. 19 

A monk preaching the Crusades. 

urged them to go. At these assemblages the 
monks held up symbols of the crucifixion, to 
inspire their zeal, and promised them the special 
favor of heaven if they would go. They said 




r:.i: viiiiNG the crvsaphs 



that whoever devoted himself to this great cause 
should surely be pardoned for all the sins and 
crimes that he had committed, whatever they 
might be ; and whenever they heard of the com- 
mission of any great crimes by potentates or 
rulers, they would seize upon the occasion to 
urge the guilty persons to go and fight for the 
cross in Palestine, as a means of wiping away 
their guilt. 

One of these preachers charged such a crime 



20 King Richard I. [1137. 

The reasons why Louis and Eleanora undertook a crusade. 

upon Louis, the husband of Eleanora. It seems 
that, in a quarrel which he had with one of his 
neighbors, he had sent an armed force to invade 
his enemy's dominions, and in storming a town 
a cathedral had been set on fire and burned, and 
fifteen hundred persons, who had taken refuge 
in it as a sanctuary, had perished in the flames. 
Now it was a very great crime, according to the 
ideas of those times, to violate a sanctuary ; and 
the hermit-preacher urged Louis to go on a cru- 
sade in order to atone for the dreadful guilt he 
had incurred by not only violating a sanctuary, 
but by overwhelming, in doing it, so many 
hundreds of innocent women and children in the 
awful suffering of being burned to death. So 
Louis determined to go on a crusade, and Ele- 
anora determined to accompany him. Her mo- 
tive was a love of adventure and a fondness for 
notoriety. She thought that by going out, a 
young and beautiful princess, at the head of an 
army of Crusaders, into the East, she would 
make herself a renowned heroine in the eyes of 
the whole world. So she immediately com- 
menced her preparations, and by the command- 
ing influence which she exerted over the ladies 
of the court, she soon inspired them all with 
her own romantic ardor. 



1137.] King Richard's Mother. 21 



The power of ridicule. 



The ladies at once laid aside their feminine 
dress, and clothed themselves like Amazons, so 
that they could ride astride on horseback like 
men. All their talk was of arms, and armor, 
and horses, and camps. They endeavored, too, 
to interest all the men — the princes, and barons, 
and knights that surrounded them — in their 
plans, and to induce them to join the expedi- 
tion. A great many did. so, but there were 
some that shook their heads and. seemed in- 
clined to stay at home. They knew that so 
wild and heedless a plan as this could end in 
nothing but disaster. The ladies ridiculed 
these men for their cowardice and want of spir- 
it, and they sent them their distaffs as presents. 
"We have no longer any use for the distaffs," 
said they, "but, as you are intending to stay 
at home and make women of yourselves, we 
send them to you, so that you may occupy 
yourselves with spinning while we are gone." 
By such taunts and ridicule as this, a great 
many were shamed into joining the expedition, 
whose good sense made them extremely averse 
to have any thing to do with it. 

The expedition was at length organized and 
prepared to set forth. It was encumbered by 
the immense quantity of baggage which the 



22 King Richard I. [1137. 

The plans and purposes of the female Crusaders. Antioch. 

queen and her party of women insisted on tak- 
ing. It is true that they had assumed the dress 
of Amazons, but this was only for the camp and 
the field. They expected to enjoy a great many 
pleasures while they were gone, to give and re- 
ceive a great many entertainments, and to live 
in luxury and splendor in the great cities of the 
East. So they must needs take with them 
large quantities of baggage, containing dresses 
and stores of female paraphernalia of all kinds. 
The king remonstrated against this folly, but 
all to no purpose. The ladies thought it very 
hard if, in going on such an expedition, they 
could not take with them the usual little com- 
forts and conveniences appropriate to their sex. 
So it ended with their having their own way. 

The caprices and freaks of these women con- 
tinued to harass and interfere with the expedi- 
tion during the whole course of it. The army 
of Crusaders reached at length a place near An- 
tioch, in Asia Minor, where they encountered 
the Saracens. Antioch was then in the pos- 
session of the Christians. It was under the 
command of the Prince Raymond, who has al- 
ready been spoken of as Eleanora's uncle. Ray- 
mond was a young and very handsome prince, 
and Eleanora anticipated great pleasure in vis- 



1137.] King Richard's Mother. 23 

Meeting the Saracens. Choosing an encampment. 

iting his capital. The expedition had not, how- 
ever, yet reached it, but were advancing through 
the country, defending themselves as well as 
they could against the troops of Arab horsemen 
that were harassing their march. 

The commanders were greatly perplexed in 
this emergency to know what to do with the 
women, and with their immense train of bag- 
gage. The king at last sent them on in ad- 
vance, with all his best troops to accompany 
them. He directed them to go on, and encamp 
for the night on certain high ground which he 
designated, where they would be safe, he said, 
from an attack by the Arabs. But when they 
approached the place, Eleanora found a green 
and fertile valley near, which was very roman- 
tic and beautiful, and she decided at once that 
this was a much prettier place to encamp in 
than the bare hill above. The officers in com- 
mand of the troops remonstrated in vain. El- 
eanora and the ladies insisted on encamping in 
the valley. The consequence was, that the 
Arabs came and got possession of the hill, and 
thus put themselves between the division of the 
army which was with Eleanora and that which 
was advancing under the king. A great battle 
was fought. The French were defeated. A 



24 King Eichard I. [1137. 

The result of the queen's generalship. A quarrel. 

great many thousand men were slain. All the 
provisions for the army were cut off, and all 
the ladies' baggage was seized and plundered 
by the Arabs. The remainder of the army, 
with the king, and the queen, and the ladies, 
succeeded in making their escape to Antioch, 
and there Prince Raymond opened the gates 
and let them in. 

As soon as Eleanora and the other ladies re- 
covered a little from their fright and fatigue, 
they began to lead very gay lives in Antioch, 
and before long a serious quarrel broke out be- 
tween Louis and the queen. The cause of this 
quarrel was Raymond. He was a young and 
handsome man, and he soon began to show such 
fondness for Eleanora that the king's jealousy 
was aroused, and at length the king discerned, 
as he said, proofs of such a degree of intimacy 
between them as to fill him with rage. He de- 
termined to leave Antioch immediately, and 
take Eleanora with him. She was very unwil- 
ling to go, but the king was so angry that he 
compelled her to accompany him. So he went 
away abruptly, scarcely bidding Raymond good- 
by at all, and proceeded with Eleanora and 
nearly all his company to Jerusalem. Eleano- 
ra submitted, though she was exceedingly out 
of humor 



1137.] King Richard's Mother. 25 

The queen at Jerusalem. A divorce proposed. 

The king, too, on his part, was as much out 
of humor as the queen. He determined that 
he would not allow her to accompany him any 
more on the campaign ; so he left her at Jeru- 
salem, a sort of prisoner, while he put himself 
at the head of his army and went forth to pros- 
ecute the war. By-and-by, when he came back 
to Jerusalem, and inquired about his wife's con- 
duct while he had been gone, he learned some 
facts in respect to the intimacy which she had 
formed with a prince of the country during his 
absence, that made him more angry than ever. 
He declared that he would sue for a divorce. 
She was a wicked woman, he said, and he would 
repudiate her. 

One of his ministers, however, contrived to 
appease him, at least so far as to induce him to 
abandon this design. The minister did not 
pretend to say that Eleanora was innocent, or 
that she did not deserve to be repudiated, but 
he said that if the divorce was to be carried into 
effect, then Louis would lose all claim to Elea- 
nora's possessions, for it will be recollected that 
the dukedom of Aquitaine, and the other rich 
possessions which belonged to Eleanora before 
her marriage, continued entirely separate from 
the kingdom of France, and still belonged to her. 



26 






King 


Richard 


I. 


[1137. 


The 


failure 


of fch 


e crusade. 




Returning to France. 



The king and Eleanora had a daughter named 
Margaret, who was now a young child, but who, 
when she grew up, would inherit both her fa- 
ther's and her mother's possessions, and thus, in 
the end, they would be united, if the king and 
queen continued to live together in peace. But 
this would be all lost, as the minister maintain- 
ed in his argument with the king, in case of a 
divorce. 

"If you are divorced from her," said he, 
"she will soon be married again, and then all 
her possessions will finally go out of your fam- 

So the king concluded to submit to the shame 
of his wife's dishonor, and still keep her as his 
wife. But he had now lost all interest in the 
crusade, partly on account of his want of suc- 
cess in it, and partly on account of his domestic 
troubles. So he left the Holy Land, and took 
the queen and the ladies, and the remnant of 
his troops, back again to Paris. Here he and 
the queen lived very unhappily together for about 
two years. 

At the end of this time the queen became in- 
volved in new difficulties in consequence of her 
intrigues. The time had passed away so rapid- 
ly that it was now thirteen years since her mar- 



1137.] King Richard's Mother. 27 

The queen's new lover. A divorce again proposed. 

riage, and she was about twenty-eight years of 
age — old enough, one would think, to have 
learned some discretion. After, however, amus- 
ing herself with various lovers, she at length 
became enamored of a young prince named Hen- 
ry Plantagenet, who afterward became Henry 
the Second of England, and was the father of 
Richard, the hero of this history. Henry was 
at this time Duke of Normandy. He came to 
visit the court of Louis in Paris, and here, after 
a short time, Eleanora conceived the idea of 
being divorced from Louis in order to marry 
him. Henry was a great deal younger than 
Eleanora, being then only about eighteen years 
of age; but he was very agreeable in his person 
and manners, and Queen Eleanora was quite 
charmed with him. It was not, however, to be 
expected that he should be so much charmed 
with her; for, although she had been very beau- 
tiful, she had now so far passed the period of 
her youth, and had been subjected to so many 
exposures, that the bloom of her early beauty 
was in a great measure gone. She was now 
nearly thirty years old, having been married 
twelve or thirteen years. She, however, made 
eager advances to Henry, and finally gave 
him to understand, that if he would consent to 



28 King Richard I. [1150. 

The motives of Henry. Controversy among historians. 

many her, she would obtain a divorce from 
King Louis, and then endow him with all her 
dominions. 

Now there was a strong reason operating 
upon Henry's mind to accept this proposal. He 
claimed to be entitled to the crown of England. 
King Stephen was at this time reigning in Eng- 
land, but Henry maintained that he was a 
usurper, and he was eager to dispossess him. 
Eleanora represented to Henry that, with all 
the forces of her dominions, she could easily en- 
able him to do that, and so at length the idea 
of making himself a king overcame his natural 
repugnance to take a wife almost twice as old 
as he was himself, and she, too, the divorced 
and discarded wife of another man. So he 
agreed to Eleanora's proposal, and measures 
were soon taken to effect the divorce. 

There is some dispute among the ancient his- 
torians in respect to this divorce. Some say 
that it was the king that originated it, and that 
the cause which he alleged was the freedom of 
the queen in her love for other men, and that 
Eleanora, when she found that the divorce was 
resolved upon, formed the plan of beguiling 
young Henry into a marriage with her, to save 
her fall. Others say that the divorce was her 



1150.] King Richard's Mother. 29 



The real motives in the divorce. 



plan alone, and that the pretext for it was the 
relationship that existed between her and King- 
Louis, for they were in some degree related to 
each other ; and the rules of the Church of 
Rome were very strict against such marriages. 
It is not improbable, however, that the real rea- 
son of the divorce was that the kinsr desired it 
on account of his wife's loose and irregular char- 
acter, while Eleanora wished for it in order to 
have a more agreeable husband. She never had 
liked Louis. He was a very grave and even 
gloomy man, who thought of nothing but the 
Church, and his penances and prayers, so that 
Eleanora said he was more of a monk than a 
king. This monkish turn of mind had in- 
creased upon the king since his return from the 
Crusades. He made it a matter of conscience 
to wear coarse and plain clothes instead of 
dressing handsomely like a king, and he cut off 
the curls of his hair, which had been very beau- 
tiful, and shaved his head and his mustaches. 
This procedure disgusted Eleanora completely. 
She despised her husband herself, and ridiculed 
him to others, saying that he had made himself 
look like an old priest. In a word, all her love 
for him was entirely gone. Both parties being 
thus very willing to have the marriage annulled, 



30 King Richaed I. [1152. 

A violent courtship end a narrow escape. 

they agreed to put it on the ground of their re- 
lationship, in order to avoid scandal. 

At any rate, the marriage was dissolved, and 
Eleanora set out from Paris to return to Bor- 
deaux, the capital of her own country. Henry 
was to meet her on the way. Her road lay 
along the banks of the Loire. Here she stop- 
ped for a day or two. The count who ruled 
this province, who was a very gay and hand- 
some man, offered her his hand. He wished to 
add her dominions to his own. Eleanora re- 
fused him. The count resolved not to take the 
refusal, and, under some pretext or other, he de- 
tained her in his castle, resolving to keep her 
there until she should consent. But Eleanora 
was not a woman to be conquered by such a 
method as this. She pretended to acquiesce in 
the detention, and to be contented, but this was 
only to put the count off his guard ; and then, 
watching her opportunity, she escaped from the 
castle in the night ; and getting into a boat, 
which she had caused to be provided for the 
purpose, she went down the river to the town 
of Tours, which was some distance below, and 
in the dominions of another sovereign. 

In going on from Tours toward her own home, 
she encountered and narrowly escaped another 



1152.] King Richard's Mother. 31 

Geoffrey's designs upon Eleanora. Customs of old times. 

danger. It seems that Geoffrey Plantagenet, 
the brother of Henry, whom she had engaged 
to marry, conceived the design of seizing her 
and compelling her to marry him instead of his 
brother. It may seem strange that any one 
should be so unprincipled and base as to at- 
tempt thus to circumvent his own brother, and 
take away from him his intended wife ; but it 
was not a strange thing at all for the members 
of the royal and princely families of those days 
to act in this manner toward each other. It 
was the usual and established condition of things 
among these families that the different members 
of them should be perpetually intriguing and ma- 
noeuvring one against the other, brother against 
sister, husband against wife, and father against 
son. In a vast number of instances these con- 
tentions broke out into open war, and the wars 
thus waged between the nearest relatives were 
of the most desperate and merciless character. 

It was therefore a very moderate and incon- 
siderable deed of brotherly hostility on the part 
of Geoffrey to plan the seizure of his brother's 
intended wife, in order to get possession of her 
dominions. The plan which he formed was to 
lie in wait for the boat which was to convey 
Eleanora down the river, and seize her as she 



32 King Eichard I. [1152. 



Eleanora eluded Geoffrey. She is married to Henry. 

came by. She, however, avoided this snare by 
turning off into a branch of the river which 
came from the south. You will see the course 
of the river and the situation of this southern 
branch on the map.* The branch which Elea- 
nora followed not only took her away from the 
ambush which Geoffrey had laid for her, but 
conducted her toward her own home, where, aft- 
er meeting with various other adventures, she 
arrived safely at last. Here Henry Plantag- 
enet soon joined her, and they were married. 
The marriage took place only six weeks after 
her divorce from her former husband. This 
was considered a very scandalous transaction 
throughout, and Eleanora was now considered 
as having forfeited all claims to respectability 
of character. Still she was a great duchess in 
her own right, and was now wife of the heir-ap- 
parent of the English throne, and so her char- 
acter made little difference in the estimation in 
which she was held by the world. 

From the time of her first engagement with 
Henry nearly two years had elapsed before all 
the proceedings in relation to the divorce had 
been completed so as to prepare the way for the 
marriage, and now Eleanora was about thirty- 
* See page 14, 



1153.] King Eichard's Mother. 33 

Henry's expedition to England. His final coronation. 

two years of age, while Henry was only twen- 
ty. Henry seems to have felt no love for his 
wife. He had acceded to her proposal to mar- 
ry him only in order to obtain the assistance 
which the forces of her dominions might sup- 
ply him in gaining possession of the English 
throne. 

Accordingly, about a year after the marriage, 
a military expedition was fitted out to proceed 
to England. The expedition consisted of thir- 
ty-six ships, and a large force of fighting men. 
Henry landed in England at the head of this 
force, and advanced against Stephen. The two 
princes fought for some time without any very 
decisive success on either side, when at length 
they concluded to settle the quarrel by a com- 
promise. It was agreed that Stephen should 
continue to hold the crown as long as he lived, 
and then that Henry should succeed him. When 
this arrangement had been made, Henry return- 
ed to Normandy ; and then, after two or three 
years, he heard of Stephen's death. He then 
went immediately to England again, and was 
universally acknowledged as king. Eleanora 
went with him as queen, and very soon they 
were crowned at Westminster with the greatest 
possible pomp and parade. 
C 



34 King Eichard I. [1154. 



Eleanora Queen of England. 



And thus it was that Eleanora of Aquitaine, 
the mother of Eichard, in the year eleven hund- 
red and fifty-four, became queen-consort of En- 
gland. 



1154.] Richard's early Life. 35 

The sons and daughters of King Henry. 



Chapter II. 
Eichard's early Life. 

ALMOST all the early years of the life of 
our hero were spent in wars which were 
waged by the different members of his father's 
family against each other. These wars origi- 
nated in the quarrels that arose between the sons 
and their father in respect to the family prop- 
erty and power. Henry had five sons, of whom 
Richard was the third. He had also three 
daughters. The king held a great variety of 
possessions, having inherited from his father and 
grandfather, or received through his wife, a num- 
ber of distinct and independent realms. Thus 
he was duke of one country, earl of another, 
king of a third, and count of a fourth. England 
was his kingdom, Normandy was his great duke- 
dom, and he held, besides, various other realms. 
He was a generous father, and he began early 
by conveying some of these provinces to his 
sons. But they were not contented with the 
portions that he voluntarily assigned them. 



36 King Richard I. [1154. 



Rebellions and family quarrels. 



They called for more. Sometimes the father 
yielded to these unreasonable demands, but 
yielding only made the young men more grasp- 
ing than before, and at length the father would 
resist. Then came rebellions, and leagues form- 
ed by the sons against the father, and the mus- 
terings of armies, and battles, and sieges. The 
mother generally took part with the sons in 
these unnatural contests, and in the course of 
them the most revolting spectacles were present- 
ed to the eyes of the world — of towns belong- 
ing to a father sacked and burned by the sons, 
or castles beleaguered, and the garrisons reduced 
to famine, in which a husband was defending 
himself against the forces of his wife, or a sister 
against those of a brother. Richard himself, 
who seems to have been the most desperate and 
reckless of the family, began to take an active 
part in these rebellions against his father when 
he was only seventeen years old. 

These wars continued, with various tempo- 
rary interruptions, for many years, and when- 
ever at any time a brief peace was made be- 
tween the sons and the father, then the young 
men would usually fall to quarreling among 
themselves. Indeed, Henry, the oldest of them, 
said that the only possible bond of peace be- 



1154.] Richard's early Life. 37 

The appearance of the Queen Eleanora in London. 

tween the brothers seemed to be a common war 
against their father. 

Nor did the king live on much better terms 
with his wife than lie did with his children. 
At the time of Eleanora's marriage with Henry, 
her prospects were bright indeed. The people 
of England, notwithstanding the evil reports 
that were spread in respect to her character, re- 
ceived her as their queen with much enthusi- 
asm, and on the occasion of her coronation they 
made a great deal of parade to celebrate the 
event. Her appearance at that time attracted 
unusual attention. This was partly on account 
of her personal attractions and partly on ac- 
count of her dress. The style of her dress was 
quite Oriental. She had brought home with 
her from Antioch a great many Eastern fash- 
ions, and many elegant articles of dress, such as 
mantles of silk and brocade, scarfs, jeweled gir- 
dles and bands, and beautiful veils, such as are 
worn at the East. These dresses were made at 
Constantinople, and when displayed by the 
queen in London they received a great deal of 
admiration. 

We can see precisely how the queen looked 
in these dresses by means of illuminated por- 
traits of her contained in the books written at 



38 King Eichard I. [1154. 

Illuminated portraits. The queen's attire. The king's attire. 

that time. It was the custom in those days in 
writing books — the work of which was all ex- 
ecuted by hand — to embellish them with what 
were called illuminations. These were, small 
paintings inserted here and there upon the page, 
representing the distinguished personages named 
in the writing. These portraits were painted in 
very brilliant colors, and there are several still 
remaining that show precisely how Eleanora 
appeared in one of her Oriental dresses. She 
wears a close head-dress, with a circlet of gems 
over it. There is a gown made with tight 
sleeves, and fastened with full gathers just be- 
low the throat, where it is confined by a rich 
collar of gems. Over this is an elegant outer 
robe bordered with fur. The sleeves of the 
outer robe are very full and loose, and are lined 
with ermine. They open so as to show the 
close sleeves beneath. Over all is a long and 
beautiful gauze veil. 

The dress of the king was very rich and gor- 
geous too ; and so, indeed, was that of all the 
ecclesiastics and other dignitaries that took part 
in the celebration. All London was filled with 
festivity and rejoicing on the occasion, and the 
queen's heart overflowed with pride and joy. 

After the coronation, the king conducted El- 



1154.] Richard's early Life. 39 

The palace at Bermondsey. Scenes of festivity. 

eanora to a beautiful country residence called 
Bermondsey, which was at a short distance from 
London, toward the south. Here there was a 
palace, and gardens, and beautiful grounds. 
The palace was on an elevation which com- 
manded a fine view of the capital. Here the 
queen lived in royal state. She had, however, 
other palaces besides, and she often went to and 
fro among her different residences. She con- 
trived a great many entertainments to amuse 
her court, such as comedies, games, revels, and 
celebrations of all sorts. The king joined with 
her in these schemes of pleasure. One of the 
historians of the time .gives a curious account 
of the appearance of the king and the court in 
their excursions. " When the king sets out of 
a morning, you see multitudes of people run- 
ning up and down as if they were distracted — 
horses rushing against horses, carriages over- 
turning carriages, players, gamesters, cooks, 
confectioners, morrice-dancers, barbers, courte- 
zans, and parasites — making so much noise, and, 
in a word, such an intolerable tumultuous jum- 
ble of horse and foot, that you can imagine the 
great abyss hath opened and poured forth all its 
inhabitants." 

It was about three years after Eleanora was 



40 King Richard I. [1154. 

The palace at Oxford. Its present appearance. An early marriage. 

crowned Queen of England that Kichard was 
horn. At the time of his birth, the queen was 
residing at a palace in Oxford. The palace has 
gone pretty much to ruin. The building is now 
used in part as a work-house. The room where 
Kichard was born is roofless and uninhabitable. 
Nothing even of the interior of it remains ex- 
cept some traces of the fire-place. The room, 
however, though thus completely gone to ruin, 
is a place of considerable interest to the English 
people, who visit it in great numbers in order 
that they may see the place where the great 
hero was born ; for, desperate and reckless as 
Richard's character was, the people of England 
are quite proud of him on account of his un- 
daunted bravery. 

It is very curious that the first important 
event of Richard's childhood was his marriage. 
He was married when he was about four years 
old — that is, he was regularly and formally af- 
fianced, and a ceremony which might be called 
the marriage ceremony was duly performed. 
His bride was a young child of Louis, King of 
France. The child was about three years old. 
Her name was Alice. This marriage was the 
result of a sort of bargain between Henry, Rich- 
ard's father, and Louis, the French king. They 



1162.] Richaed's eaely Life. 41 

The reason for marrying children four years old. 

had had a fierce dispute about the portion of 
another of Louis's children that had been mar- 
ried in the same way to one of Richard's broth- 
ers named Henry. The English king com- 
plained that the dowry was not sufficient, and 
the French king, after a long discussion, agreed 
to make it up by giving another province with 
his daughter Alice to Richard. The reason 
that induced the King of England to effect these 
marriages was, that the provinces that were be- 
stowed with their infant wives as their dowries 
came into his hands as the guardian of their 
husbands while they were minors, and thus ex- 
tended, as it were, his own dominions. 

By this time the realms of King Henry had 
become very extensive. He inherited Norman- 
dy, you will recollect, from his ancestors, and 
he was in possession of that country before he 
became King of England. When he was mar- 
ried to Eleanora, he acquired through her a 
large addition to his territory by becoming, 
jointly with her, the sovereign of her realms in 
the south of France. Then, when he became 
King of England, his power was still more ex- 
tended, and, finally, by the marriages of his 
sons, the young princes, he received other prov- 
inces besides, though, of course, he held these 



42 King Eichaed I. [1162. 

Vice-regencies. The rebellions of Richard. 

last only as the guardian of his children. Now, 
in governing these various realms, the king was 
accustomed to leave his wife and his sons in 
different portions of them, to rule them in his 
absence, though still under his command. They 
each maintained a sort of court in the city where 
their father left them, but they were expected to 
govern the several portions of the country in 
strict subjection to their father's general control. 
The boys, however, as they grew older, became 
more and more independent in feeling ; and the 
queen, being a great deal older than her hus- 
band, and having been, before her marriage, a 
sovereign in her own right, was disposed to be 
very little submissive to his authority. It was 
under these circumstances that the family quar- 
rels arose that led to the wars spoken of at the 
beginning of the chapter. Richard himself, 
as was there stated, began to raise rebellions 
against his father when he was about seventeen 
years old. 

Whenever, in the course of these wars, the 
young men found themselves worsted in their 
contests with their father's troops, their resource 
was to fly to Paris, in order to get King Louis 
to aid them. This Louis was always willing 
to do, for he took great pleasure in the dissen- 



1162.] Eichaed's early Life. 43 



Eleanora's time of suffering comes. 



sions which were thus continually breaking out 
in Henry's family. 

Besides these wars, Queen Eleanora had one 
great and bitter source of trouble in a guilty 
attachment which her husband cherished for a 
beautiful lady more nearly of his own age than 
his wife was. Her name was Rosamond. She 
is known in history as Fair Rosamond. A full 
account of her will be given in the next chap- 
ter. All that is necessary to state here is that 
Queen Eleanora was made very wretched by her 
husband's love for Rosamond, though she had 
scarcely any right to complain, for she had, as 
it would seem, done all in her power to alienate 
the affections of her husband from herself by 
the levity of her conduct, and by her bold and 
independent behavior in all respects. At last, 
at one time while she was at Bordeaux, the 
capital of her realm of Aquitaine, she heard ru- 
mors that the king was intending to obtain a 
divorce from her, in order that he might openly 
marry Rosamond, and she determined to go back 
to her former husband, Louis of France. The 
country, however, was full of castles, which were 
garrisoned by Henry's troops, and she was 
afraid that they would prevent her going if they 
knew of her intention ; so she contrived a plan 



44 King Kichaed I. [1162. 

The queen's flight. The captivity in Winchester. 

of disguising herself in man's clothes, and un- 
dertook to make her escape in that way. She 
succeeded in getting away from Bordeaux, but 
her flight was soon discovered, and the officers 
of the garrison immediately sent off a party to 
pursue her. The pursuers overtook her before 
she had gone far, and brought her back. They 
treated her quite roughly, and kept her a pris- 
oner in Bordeaux until her husband came. 
When Henry arrived he was quite angry with 
the queen for having thus undertaken to go back 
to her former husband, whom he considered as 
his greatest rival and enemy, and he determined 
that she should have no opportunity to make 
another such attempt; so he kept a very strict 
watch over her, and subjected her to so much 
restraint that she considered herself a prisoner. 
The king had a quarrel also at this time with 
one of his daughters-in-law, and he made her a 
prisoner too. Soon after this he went back to 
England, taking these two captives in his train. 
In a short time he sent the queen to a certain 
palace which he had in Winchester, and there 
he kept her confined for sixteen years. It was 
during this period of their mother's captivity 
that the wars between the father and his sons 
was waged most fiercely. 



1182.] Richard's early Life. 45 

The message from Henry. His death. Itemorse. 

At length, in the year eleven hundred and 
eighty-two, in the midst of one of the most vi- 
olent wars that had raged between the king and 
his sons, a message came to the king that his 
son Henry was very dangerously sick, and that 
he wished his father to come and see him. The 
king was greatly at a loss what to do on receiv- 
ing this communication. His counselors ad- 
vised him not to go. It was only a stratagem, 
they said, on the part of the young prince, to 
get his father into his camp, and so take him 
prisoner. So the king concluded not to go. 
He had, however, some misgivings that his son 
might be really sick, and accordingly dispatched 
an archbishop to him with a ring, which he said 
he sent to him as a token of his forgiveness and 
of his paternal affection. Very soon, however, 
a second messenger came to the king to say 
that Prince Henry had died. These sad tidings 
overwhelmed the heart of the king with the most 
poignant grief. He at once forgot all the un- 
dutiful and disobedient conduct of his son, and 
remembered him only as his dearly-beloved 
child. He became almost broken-hearted. 

The prince himself, on his death-bed, was 
borne down with remorse and anguish in think- 
ing of the crimes that he had committed against 



46 King Richard I. [1182. 

The agonies of a wicked man's death. 

his father. He longed to have his father come 
and see him before he died. The ring which 
the archbishop was sent to bring to him arrived 
just in time, and the prince pressed it to his 
lips, and blessed it with tears of frantic grief. 
As the hour of death approached his remorse 
became dreadful. All the attempts made by 
the priests around his bed to soothe and quiet 
him were unavailing, and at last his agony be- 
came so great that he compelled them to put a 
rope around him and drag him from his bed to 
a heap of ashes, placed for the purpose in his 
room, that he might die there. A heap of ash- 
es, he said, was the only fit place for such a 
reprobate as he had been. 

So will it be with all undutiful children ; 
when on their death-beds, they reflect on their 
disobedient and rebellious conduct toward the 
father and the mother to whom they owe their 
being. 

It is remarkable how great an effect a death 
in a family produces in reconciling those who 
before had been at enmity with each other. 
There are many husbands and wives who great- 
ly disagree with each other in times of health 
and prosperity, but who are reconciled and made 
to love each other by adversity and sorrow. 



1184.] Richard's early Life. 47 

Affliction reconciles hostile relatives. Another quarrel. 

Such was the effect produced upon the minds 
of Heniy and Eleanora by the death of their 
son and heir. They were both overwhelmed^ 
with grief, for the affection which a parent bearj 
to a child is never wholly extinguished, howev- 
er undutiful and rebellious a child may be; and 
the grief which the two parents now felt in com- 
mon brought them to a reconciliation. The 
king seemed disposed to forgive the queen for 
the offenses, whether real or imaginary, which 
she had committed against him. "Now that 
our dear son is dead and gone," said he, "let 
us no longer quarrel with each other." So he 
liberated the queen from the restraint which he 
had imposed upon her, and restored her once 
more to her rank as an English queen. 

This state of things continued for about a 
year, and then the old spirit of animosity and 
contention burned up once more as fiercely as 
ever. The king shut up Eleanora again, and a 
violent quarrel broke out between the king and 
his son Richard. 

The cause of this quarrel was connected with 
the Princess Alice, to whom it will be recollect- 
ed Richard had been betrothed in his infancy. 
Richard claimed that now, since he was of age, 
liis wife ought to be given to him, but his father 



48 King Richard I. [1184. 

luchard's long engagement. The sad death of Geoffrey. 

kept her away, and would not allow the mar- 
riage to be consummated. The king made va- 
rious excuses and pretexts for the delay. Some 
thought that the real reason was that he wish- 
ed to continue his guardianship and his pos- 
session of the dower as long as possible, but 
Richard thought that his father was in love 
with Alice himself, and that he did not intend 
that he, Richard, should have her at all. This 
difficulty led to new quarrels, in which the king 
and Richard became more exasperated with each 
other than ever. This state of things contin- 
ued until Richard was thirty-four years old and 
his bride was thirty. Richard was so far bound 
to her that he could not marry any other lady, 
and his father obstinately persisted in prevent- 
ing his completing the marriage with her. 

In the mean time Prince Geoffrey, another of 
the king's sons, came to a miserable end. He 
was killed in a tournament. He was riding 
furiously in the tournament in the midst of a 
great number of other horsemen, when he was 
unfortunately thrown from his steed, and trod- 
den to death on the ground by the hoofs of the 
other horses that galloped over him. The only 
two sons that were now left were Richard and 
John. Of these, Richard was now the oldest, 



1184.] KlClIARD'S EAIILY LlFE. 



49 



Portrait of King Henry II. 



Dividing the inheritance. 




PORTRAIT OF KINO HENRY II. 



and he was, of course, his father's heir. King 
Henry, however, formed a plan for dividing his 
dominions between his two sons, instead of al- 
lowing Richard to inherit the whole. John was 
his youngest son, and, as such, the king loved 
him tenderly. So he conceived the idea of 
D 



50 King Richard I. [1184. 

Richard's resistance to his father's plans. Assistance from Philip. 

leaving to Richard all his possessions in France, 
which constituted the most important part of 
his dominions, and of bestowing the kingdom 
of England upon John ; and, in order to make 
sure of the carrying of this arrangement into ef- 
fect, he proposed crowning John king of En- 
gland forthwith. 

Richard, however, determined to resist this 
plan. The former king of France, Louis the 
Seventh, was now dead, and his son, Philip the 
Second, the brother of Alice, reigned in his 
stead. Richard immediately set off for Paris, 
and laid his case before the young French king. 
" I am engaged," said he, "to your sister Alice, 
and my father will not give her to me. Help 
me to maintain my rights and hers." 

Philip, like his father, was always ready to 
do any thing in his power to foment dissensions 
in the family of Henry. So he readily took 
Richard's part in this new quarrel, and he, 
somehow or other, contrived means to induce 
John to come and join in the rebellion. King 
Henry was overwhelmed with grief when he 
learned that John, his youngest, and now his 
dearest child, and the last that remained, had 
abandoned him. His grief was mingled with 
resentment and rage. He invoked the bitterest 



1184] Richard's early Life. 51 

King Henry's reproach of his son John. Lady Rosamond. 

curses on his children's heads, and he caused a 
device to be painted for John and sent to him, 
representing a young eaglet picking out the pa- 
rent eagle's eyes. This was to typify to him 
his own undutiful and unnatural behavior. 

Thus the domestic life which Richard led 
while he was a young man was imbittered by 
the continual quarrels between the father, the 
mother, and the children. The greatest source 
of sorrow to his mother, however, was the con- 
nection which subsisted between the king and 
the Lady Rosamond. The nature and the re- 
sults of this connection will be explained in the 
next chapter. 



52 King Richard I. [1184. 

The mystery surrounding Fair Rosamond's history. 



Chapter III. 
Fair Rosamond. 

DURING his lifetime King Hemy did ev- 
ery thing in liis power, of course, to keep 
the circumstances of his connection with Rosa- 
mond a profound secret, and to mislead people 
as much as possible in regard to her. After 
his death, too, it was for the interest of his fam- 
ily that as little as possible should be known 
respecting her. Thus it happened that, in the 
absence of all authentic information, a great 
many strange rumors and legends were put in 
circulation, and at length, when the history of 
those times came to be written, it was impos- 
sible to separate the false from the true. 

The truth, however, so far as it can now be 
ascertained, seems to be something like this : 
Rosamond was the daughter of an English no- 
bleman named Clifford. Lord Clifford lived in 
a fine old castle situated in the valley of the 
Wye, in a most romantic and beautiful situa- 
tion. The River Wye is in the western part 
of England. It flows out from among the 



1184.] Faie Rosamond. 53 

The valley of the Wye. The clandestine marriage. 

mountains of Wales through a wild and ro- 
mantic gorge, which, after passing the English 
frontier, expands into a broad, and fertile, and 
most beautiful valley. The castle of Lord Clif- 
ford was built at the opening of the gorge, and 
it commanded an enchanting view of the valley 
below. 

It was here that Rosamond spent her child- 
hood, and here probably that Henry first met 
her while he was yet a young man. She was 
extremely beautiful, and Henry fell very deep- 
ly in love with her. This was while they were 
both very young, and some time before Henry 
thought of Eleanora for his wife. There is 
some reason to believe that Henry was really 
married to Rosamond, though, if so, the mar- 
riage was a private one, and the existence of it 
was kept a profound secret from all the world. 
The real and public marriages of kings and 
princes are almost always determined by rea- 
sons of state ; and when Henry at last went to 
Paris, and saw Eleanora there, and found, more- 
over, that she was willing to marry him, and to 
bring him as her dowry all her possessions in 
France, which would so greatly extend his do- 
minions, he determined to accede to her desires, 
and to keep his connection witli Rosamond, 



54 King Richard I. [1184. 

The palace of Woodstock. Itosahiond's concealed cottage. 

whatever the nature of it might have been, a 
profound secret forever. 

So he married Eleanora and Drought her to 
England, and lived with her, as has already 
been described, in the various palaces which be- 
longed to him, sometimes in one and sometimes 
in another. 

Among these palaces, one of the most beau- 
tiful was that of Woodstock. The engraving 
on the opposite page represents the buildings 
of the palace as they appeared some hundreds 
of years later than the time when Rosamond 
lived. 

In the days of Henry and Rosamond the 
palace of Woodstock was surrounded with very 
extensive and beautiful gardens and grounds. 
Somewhere upon these grounds the story was 
that Henry kept Rosamond in a concealed cot- 
tage. The entrance to the cottage was hidden 
in the depths of an almost impenetrable thick- 
et, and could only be approached through a tor- 
tuous and intricate path, which led this way 
and that by an infinite number of turns, form- 
ing a sort of maze, made purposely to bewilder 
those attempting to pass in and out. Such a 
place was often made in those days in palace- 
grounds as a sort of ornament, or, rather, as an 



a^ % 




1184.] Fair Rosamond. 57 

The construction of a labyrinth. Deceptive paths. 

amusing contrivance to interest the guests com- 
ing to visit the proprietor. It was called a lab- 
yrinth. A great many plans of labyrinths are 
found delineated in ancient books. The paths 
were not only so arranged as to twist and turn 
in every imaginable direction, but at every turn 
there were several branches made so precisely 
alike that there was nothing to distinguish one 
from the other. Of course, one of these roads 
was the right one, and led to the centre of the 
labyrinth, where there was a house, or a pretty 
seat with a view, or a garden, or a shady bower, 
or some other object of attraction, to reward 
those who should succeed in getting in. The 
other paths led nowhere, or, rather, they led on 
through various devious windings in all respects 
similar to those of the true path, until at length 
they came to a sudden stop, and the explorer 
was obliged to return. 

The paths were separated from each other by 
dense hedges of thorn, or by high walls, so that 
it was impossible to pass from one to another 
except by walking regularly along. 

It was in a house, entered through such a lab- 
yrinth as this, that Eosamond is said to have 
lived, on the grounds of the palace of Wood- 
stock, while Queen Eleanora, as the avowed 



58 King Eichaed I. [1184. 

How Rosamond's concealment was discovered by the queen. 

wife and queen of King Henry, occupied the 
palace itself. Of course, the fact that such a 
lady was hidden on the grounds was kept a 
profound secret from the queen. If this story 
is true, there were probably other labyrinths on 
the grounds, and this one was so surrounded 
with trees and hedges, which connected it by 
insensible gradations with the groves and thick- 
ets of the park, that there was nothing to attract 
attention to it particularly, and thus a lady 
might have remained concealed in it for some 
time without awakening suspicion. 

At any rate, Rosamond did remain, it is sup- 
posed for a year or two, concealed thus, until at 
length the queen discovered the secret. The 
story is that the king found his way in and out 
the labyrinth by means of a clew of floss silk, 
and that the queen one day, when riding witli 
the king in the park, observed this clew, a part 
of which had, in some way or other, become at- 
tached to his spur. She said nothing, but, 
watching a private opportunity, she followed the 
clew. It led by a very intricate path into the 
heart of the labyrinth. There the queen found 
a curiously-contrived door. The door was al- 
most wholly concealed from view, but the queen 
discovered it and opened it. She found that it 



1184.] Fair Kosamond. 59 

The subterranean passage. Uncertainties of the story. 

led into a subterranean passage. The interest 
and cariosity of the queen were now excited 
more than ever, and she determined that the 
mystery should be solved. So she followed 
the passage, and was finally led by it to a place 
beyond the wall of the grounds, where there was 
a house in a very secluded spot surrounded by 
thickets. Here the queen found Rosamond sit- 
ting in a bower, and engaged in embroidering. 
She was now in a great rage both against 
Rosamond and against her husband. It was 
generally said that she poisoned Rosamond. 
The story was, that she took a cup of poison 
with her, and a dagger, and, presenting them 
both to Rosamond, compelled her to choose be- 
tween them, and that Rosamond chose the poi- 
son, and, drinking it, died. This story, how- 
ever, was not true, for it is now known that 
Rosamond lived many years after this time, 
though she was separated from the king. It is 
thought that her connection with the king con- 
tinued for about two years after his marriage 
with Eleanora. She then left him. It may be 
that she did not know before that time that the 
king was married. She may have supposed 
that she was herself his lawful wife, as, indeed, 
it is possible that she may actually have been 



60 King Richard I. [1184. 

Rosamond retires to the convent of Codestow. 

so. At any rate, soon after she and Eleanora 
became acquainted with each other's existence, 
Rosamond retired to a convent, and lived there 
in complete seclusion all the rest of her days. 

The name of this convent was Godestow. It 
was situated near Oxford. Rosamond became 
a great favorite with the nuns while she re- 
mained at the convent, which was nearly twenty 
years. During this time the king made many 
donations to the convent for Rosamond's sake, 
and the jealousy of the queen against her beau- 
tiful rival, of course, continued unabated. It 
was, indeed, this difficulty in respect to Rosa- 
mond that was one of the chief causes of the 
domestic trouble which always existed between 
Henry and the queen. The world at large 
have always been most disposed to sympathize 
with Rosamond in this quarrel. She was near- 
ly of the king's own age, and his attachment 
to her arose, doubtless, from sincere affection ; 
whereas the queen was greatly his senior, and 
had inveigled him, as it were, into a marriage 
with her, through motives of the most calcula- 
ting and mercenary character. 

Then, moreover, Rosamond either was, or 
was supposed to be, a lady of great gentleness 
and loveliness of spirit. She was very kind to 



1184] Fair Rosamond. 61 

The world's sympathy with Rosamond rather than with Eleanora. 



the poor, and while in the convent she was very 
assiduously devoted to her religious duties. 
Eleanora, on the other hand, was a very unprin- 
cipled and heartless woman, and she had been 
so loose and free in her own manner of living 
too, as every body said and believed, that it was 
with a very ill grace that she could find any 
fault with her husband. 

Thus, under the circumstances of the case, 
the world has always been most inclined to 
sympathize with Rosamond rather than with the 
queen. The question which we ought to sym- 
pathize with depends upon which was really the 
wife of Henry. He may have been truly mar- 
ried to Rosamond, or at least some ceremony 
may have been performed which she honestly 
considered as a marriage. If so, she was inno- 
cent, and Henry was guilty for having virtually 
repudiated this marriage in order to connect 
himself with Eleanora for the sake of her king- 
dom. On the other hand, if she were not mar- 
ried to Henry, but used her arts to entice him 
away from his true wife, then she was deeply 
in fault. It is very difficult now to ascertain 
which of these suppositions is the correct one. 
In either case, Henry himself was guilty, toward 
the one or the other, of treacherously violating 



62 King Richaed I. [1184. 

The question of the validity of the marriage. 



his marriage vows — the most solemn vows, in 
some respects, that a man can ever assume. 

Rosamond had two children, named William 
and Geoffrey, and at one time in the course of 
his life Henry seemed to acknowledge that they 
were his only two children, thus admitting the 
validity of his marriage with Rosamond. This 
admission was contained in an expression which 
lie used in addressing William on a field of bat- 
tie when he came toward him at the head of 
his troop. u William," said he, "you are my 
true and legitimate son. The rest are nobod~ 
ies." He may, it is true, have only intended 
to speak figuratively in saying this, meaning 
that William was the only one worthy to be 
considered as his son, or it may be that it was 
an inadvertent and hasty acknowledgment that 
Rosamond, and not Eleanora, was his true wife. 
As time rolled on, however, and the political 
arrangements arising out of the marriage with 
Eleanora and appointment of her sons to high 
positions in the state became more and more 
extended, the difficulties which the invalidation 
of the marriage with Eleanora would produce 
became very great, and immense interests were 
involved in sustaining it. Rosamond's rights, 
therefore, if she had any, were wholly overborne, 



1184.] Fair Eosamond. 63 

Burial of Rosamond. The bishop orders the remains to be removed. 

and she was allowed to linger and die in her 
nunnery as a private person. 
1 When at length she died, the nuns, who had 
become greatly attached to her, caused her to be 
interred in an honorable manner in the chapel, 
but afterward the bishop of the diocese ordered 
the remains to be removed. He considered 
Rosamond as having never been married to the 
king, and he said that she was not a proper per- 
son to be the subject of monumental honors in 
the chapel of a society of nuns ; so he sent the 
remains away, and ordered them to be interred 
in the common burying-ground. If Rosamond 
was what he supposed her to be, and if he re- 
moved the remains in a proper and respectful 
manner, he was right in doing what he did. 
His motive may have been, however, merely a 
desire to please the authorities of his time, who 
•represented, of course, the heirs of Eleanora, by 
sealing the stamp of condemnation on the char- 
acter and position of her rival. 

But, though the authorities may have been 
pleased with the bishop's procedure, the nuns 
were not at all satisfied with it. They not only 
felt a strong personal affection for Hosamond, 
but, as a sisterhood, they felt grateful to her 
memory on account of the many benefactions 



64 



King Richard I. 



[1184. 



The nuns bring back the remains to the chapel again. 

which the convent had received from Henry on 
account of her residence there. So they seized 
the first opportunity to take up the remains 
again, which consisted now of dry bones alone, 
and, after perfuming them and inclosing them 
again in a new coffin, they deposited them once 
more under the pavement of the chapel, and 




FINAL BURIAL OF ROSAMOND. 



1184.] Fair Rosamond. 65 

Rosamond's chamber. Restoration of the house. 

laid a slab, with a suitable inscription, over the 
spot to mark the place of the grave. 

The house where Rosamond was concealed 
at Woodstock was regarded afterward with great 
interest, and there was a chamber in it that was 
for a long time known as Rosamond's Cham- 
ber. There remains a letter of one of the kings 
of England, written about a hundred years aft- 
er this time, in which the king gives directions 
to have this house repaired, and particularly to 
have the chamber restored to a perfect condition. 
His orders are, that " the house beyond the gate 
in the new wall be built again, and that same 
chamber, called Rosamond's Chamber, be re- 
stored as before, and crystal plates" — that is, 
glass for the windows — " and marble, and lead 
be provided for it." 

From that day to this the story of Rosamond 
has been regarded as one of the most interest- 
ing incidents of English history. 
E • 



66 King Richard I. [1189. 

The reverses of King Henry. 



Chapter IV. 

Accession op Eichard to the 
Throne. 

EICHARD was called to the throne when he 
was about thirty-two years of age by the 
sudden and unexpected death of his father. 
The death of his father took place under the 
most mournful circumstances imaginable. In 
the war which Richard and Philip, king of 
France, had waged against him, he had been 
unsuccessful. He had been defeated in the 
battles and outgeneraled in the manoeuvres, 
and his barons, one after another, had aban- 
doned him and taken part with the rebels. 
King Henry was an extremely passionate man, 
and the success of his enemies against him filled 
him with rage. This rage was rendered all the 
more violent by the thought that it was through 
the unnatural ingratitude of his own son, Rich- 
ard, that all these calamities came upon him. 
In the anguish of his despair, he cursed the day 
of his birth, and uttered dreadful maledictions 
against his children. 



1189.] Accession of Richard. 67 

Negotiating a peace. The thunder-storm. Henry's horsemanship. 

At length lie was reduced to such an extrem- 
ity that he was obliged to submit to negot'uw 
tions for peace, on just such terms as his ene- 
mies thought lit to impose. They made very 
hard conditions. The first attempt at negotia- 
ting the peace was made in an open field, where 
Philip and Henry met for the purpose, on horse- 
back, attended by their retainers. Richard had 
the grace to keep away from this meeting, so as 
not to be an actual witness of the humiliation 
of his father, and so Philip and Henry were to 
conduct the conference by themselves. 

The meeting was interrupted by a thunder- 
storm. At first the two kino-s did not intend 
to pay any heed to the storm, but to go on with 
their discussions without regarding it. Henry 
was a very great horseman, and spent almost 
his whole life in riding. One of his historians 
says that he never sat down except upon a sad- 
dle, unless it was when he was taking his meals. 
At any rate, he was almost always on horse- 
back. He hunted on horseback, he fought on 
horseback, he traveled on horseback, and now he 
was holding a conference with his enemies on 
horseback, in the midst of a storm of lightning 
and rain. But his health had now become im- 
paired, and his nerves, though they had always 



68 King Richard I. [1189. 

The hard conditions of peace imposed hy Philip and Richard. 

seemed to be of iron, were beginning to give 
way under the dreadful shocks to which they 
had been exposed, so that he was now far less 
able to endure such exposures than he had been. 
At length a clap of thunder broke rattling im- 
mediately over his head, and the bolt seemed 
to descend directly between him and Philip as 
they sat upon their horses in the field. Henry 
reeled in the saddle, and would have fallen if 
his attendants had not seized and held him. 
They found that he was too weak and ill to re- 
main any longer on the spot, and so they bore 
him away to his quarters, and then Philip and 
Pichard sent him in writing the conditions 
which they were going to exact from him. The 
conditions were very humiliating indeed. They 
stripped him of a great portion of his posses^ 
sions, and required him to hold others in sub- 
ordination to Philip and to Pichard. Finally, 
the last of the conditions was, that he was to 
give Pichard the kiss of peace, and to banish 
from his heart all sentiments of animosity and 
anger against him. 

Among other articles of the treaty was one 
binding him to pardon all the barons and other 
chief men who had gone over to Richard's side 
in the rebellion. As they read the articles 



1189.] Accession of Kichard. 69 

The sick king. His distress at the conduct of John. 

over to the king, while he was lying sick upon 
his bed, he asked, when they came to this one, 
to see the list of the names, that he might know 
who they were that had thus forsaken him. 
The name at the head of the list was that of his 
son John — his darling son John, to defend whose 
rights against the aggressions of Richard had 
been one of his chief motives in carrying on 
the war. The wretched father, on seeing this 
name, started up from his bed and gazed wildly 
around. 

"Is it possible," he cried out, "that John, 
the child of my heart — he whom I have cher- 
ished more than all the rest, and for love of 
whom I have drawn down on mine own head 
all these troubles, has verily betrayed me?" 
They told him that it was even so. 

" Then," said he, falling back helplessly on 
his bed, "then let every thing go as it will; 
I care no longer for myself or for any thing else 
in this world." 

All this took place in Normandy, for it was 
Normandy that had been the chief scene of the 
war between the king and his son. At some 
little distance from the place where the king 
was now lying sick there was a beautiful rural 
palace, at a place called Chinon, which was sit- 



70 King Richard I. [1189. 

The palace at Chinon. The imprecations of the dying king. 

uated very pleasantly on the banks of a small 
branch of the Loire. This palace was one of 
the principal summer resorts of the dukes of 
Normandy, and the king caused himself now to 
be carried there, in order to seek repose. But 
instead of being cheered by the beautiful scenes 
that were around him at Chinon, or reinvigor- 
ated by the comforts and the attentions which 
he could there enjoy, he gradually sank into 
hopeless melancholy, and in a few days he began 
to feel that he was about to die. As he grew 
worse his mind became more and more excited, 
and his attendants from time to time heard him 
moaning, in his anguish, "Oh, shame! shame! 
I am a conquered king — a conquered king! 
Cursed be the day on which I was born, and 
cursed be the children that I leave behind me!" 
The priests at his bedside endeavored to re- 
monstrate with him against these imprecations. 
They told him that it was a dreadful thing for 
a father to curse his own children, and they 
urged him to retract what he had said. Bat he 
declared that he would not. He persisted in 
cursing all his children except Geoffrey Clifford, 
the son of Rosamond, who was then at his bed- 
side, and who had never forsaken him. The 
king grew continually more and more excited 



1189.] Accession of Richard. 71 

The heartless conduct of the courtiers of the dead king. 

and disordered in mind, until at length he sank 
into a raving delirium, and in that state he died. 
A dead king is a very helpless and insignif- 
icant object, whatever may have been the terror 
which he inspired while he was alive. As long 
as Henry continued to breathe, the attendants 
around him paid him great deference, and ob- 
served every possible form of obsequious re- 
spect, for they did not know but that he might 
recover, to live and reign, and lord it over them 
and their fortunes for fifteen or twenty years to 
come ; but as soon as the breath was out of 
his body, all was over. Richard, his son, was 
now king, and from Henry nothing whatever 
was any longer to be hoped or feared. So the 
mercenary and heartless courtiers — the minis- 
ters, priests, bishops and barons — began at once 
to strip the body of all the valuables which the 
king had worn, and also to seize and appropri- 
ate every thing in the apartments of the palace 
which they could take away. These things 
were their perquisites, they said ; it being cus- 
tomary, as they alleged, that the personal erTects 
of a deceased king should be divided among 
those who were his attendants when he died. 
Having secured this plunder, these people dis- 
appeared, and it was with the utmost difficulty 



72 King Richard L [1189. 

Richard following the funeral train to the Ahhey Fontevraud. 

that assistance enough could be procured to 
wrap the body in a winding-sheet, and to bring 
a hearse and horses to bear it away to the 
abbey where it was to be interred. Examples 
like this — of which the history of every mon- 
archy is full — throw a great deal of light upon 
what is called the principle of loyalty in the 
hearts of those who attend upon kings. 

While the procession was on the way to the 
abbey where the body was to be buried, it was 
met by Richard, who, having heard of his fa- 
ther's death, came to join in the funeral solem- 
nities. Richard followed the train until they 
arrived at the abbey. It was the Abbey Font- 
evraud, the ancient burial-place of the Norman 
princes. Arrived at the abbey, the body was 
laid out upon the bier, and the face was uncov- 
ered, in order that Richard might once more 
look upon his father's features ; but the coun- 
tenance was so distorted with the scowling ex- 
pression of rage and resentment which it had 
worn during the sufferer's last hours, that Rich- 
ard turned away in horror from the dreadful 
spectacle. 

But Richard soon drove away from his mind 
the painful thoughts which the sight of his fa- 
ther's face must have awakened, and turned his 



1189.] Accession of Richard. 73 

Richard immediately secures the succession to the throne. 

attention at once to the business which now- 
pressed upon him. He, of course, was heir both 
to the crown of England and also to all his fa- 
ther's possessions in Normandy, and he felt that 
he must act promptly, in order to secure his 
rights. It is true that there was nobody to dis- 
pute his claim, unless it was his brother John, 
for the two sons of Rosamond, Geoffrey and 
William Clifford, did not pretend to any rights 
of inheritance. Richard had some fears of John, 
and he thought it necessary to take decisive 
measures to guard against any plots that John 
might be disposed to form. He sent at once to 
England, and ordered that his mother should be 
released from her imprisonment, and invested 
her with power to act as regent there until he 
should come. In the mean time, he himself re- 
mained in Normandy, and devoted himself to ar- 
ranging and regulating the affairs of his French 
possessions. This was the wisest course for 
him to pursue, for there was no one in England 
to dispute his claims to that kingdom. On the 
Continent the case was different. His neigh- 
bor, Philip, King of France, was ready to take 
advantage of any opportunity to get possession 
of such provinces on the Continent as might be 
within his reach. 



74 King Eichaed I. [1189. 

Sorrow often results in happiness. Eleanora queen regent. 

It was certainly a good deed in Richard to 
liberate his mother from her captivity, and to 
exalt her as he did to a position of responsi- 
bility and honor. Eleanora fulfilled the trust 
which he reposed in her in a very faithful and 
successful manner. The long period of con- 
finement and suffering which she had endured 
seems to have exerted a very favorable influ- 
ence upon her mind. Indeed, it is very often 
the case that sorrow and trouble have this ef- 
fect. A life of prosperity and pleasure makes 
us heartless, selfish, and unfeeling, while sor- 
row softens the heart, and disposes us to com- 
passionate the woes of others, and to do what 
we can to relieve them. 

Eleanora was queen regent in England for 
two months, and during that time she employ- 
ed her power in a very beneficent manner. She 
released many unhappy prisoners, and pardon- 
ed many persons who had been convicted of 
political crimes. The truth is that probably, 
as she found herself drawing toward the close 
of life, and looked back upon her past career, 
and remembered her many crimes, her unfaith- 
fulness to both her husbands, and especially 
her unnatural conduct in instigating her sons to 
rebel against their father, her heart was filled 



1189.] Accession of Richard. 75 

Her change of character. Richard's return to England. 

with remorse, and she found some relief from 
her anguish in these tardy efforts to relieve suf- 
fering which might, in some small degree, re- 
pair the evils that she had brought upon the 
land by the insurrections and wars of which she 
had been the cause. She bitterly repented of 
the hostility that she had shown toward her 
husband, and of the countless wrongs that she 
had inflicted upon him. While he was alive, 
and she was engaged in her contests with him, 
the excitement that she was under blinded her 
mind ; but now that he was dead, her passion 
subsided, and she mourned for him with bitter 
grief. She distributed alms in a very abundant 
manner to the poor to induce them to pray for 
the repose of his soul. While doing these 
things she did not neglect the affairs of state. 
She made all the necessary arrangements for 
the immediate administration of the govern- 
ment, and she sent word to all the barons, and 
also to the bishops, and other great public func- 
tionaries, informing them that Richard was com- 
ing to assume the government of the realm, and 
summoning them to assemble and make ready 
to receive him. In about two months Richard 
came. 

Before Richard arrived in England, however, 



76 King Richard I. [1189. 

Richard's proposed crusade. John's dissimulation. 

lie had formed the plan, in connection with Phil- 
ip, the King of France, of going on a crusade. 
Richard was a wild and desperate man, and he 
loved fighting for its own sake ; and inasmuch 
as now, since his father was dead, and his claim 
to the crown of England, and to all his pos- 
sessions in Normandy, was undisputed, there 
seemed to be nobody for him to fight at home, 
he conceived the design of organizing a grand 
expedition to go to the Holy Land and fight 
the Saracens. 

John was very much pleased with this idea. 
"If Richard goes to Palestine," said he to him- 
self, " ten to one he will get killed, and then I 
shall be Kino; of Eno-land." 

So John was ready to do every thing in his 
power to favor the plan of the crusade. He 
pretended to be very submissive and obedient 
to his brother, and to acknowledge his sov- 
ereign power as king. He aided the king as 
much as he could in making his arrangements 
and in concocting all his plans. 

The first thing was to provide funds. A 
great deal of money was required for these 
expeditions. Ships were to be bought and 
equipped for the purpose of transporting the 
troops to the East. Arms and ammunition 



1189.] Accession of Richard. 77 

A delusion. The treasures of the crown. 

were to be provided, and large supplies of food. 
Then the princes, and barons, and knights who 
were to accompany the expedition required very 
expensive armor, and costly trappings and 
equipments of all sorts ; for, though the pretense 
was that they were going out to fight for the 
recovery of the Holy Sepulchre under the in- 
fluence of religious zeal, the real motive which 
animated them was love of glory and display. 
Tims it happened that the expense which a 
sovereign incurred in fitting out a crusade was 
enormous. 

Accordingly, King Richard, immediately on 
his arrival in England, proceeded at once to 
Winchester, where his father, King Henry, had 
kept his treasures. Richard found a large sum 
of money there in gold and silver coin, and be- 
sides this there were stores of plate, of jewelry, 
and of precious gems of great value. Richard 
caused all the money to be counted in his pres- 
ence, and an exact inventory to be made of all 
the treasures. He then placed the whole under 
the charge of trusty officers of his own, whom 
he appointed to take care of them. 

The next thing that Richard did was to dis- 
card and dismiss all his own former friends and 
adherents — the men who had taken part with 



78 King Richard I. [1189. 

Circumstances alter cases. Accomplices ill rewarded. 

him in his rebellions against his father. "Men 
that would join me in rebelling against any fa- 
ther," thought he to himself, "would join any 
body else, if they thought they could gain by 
it, in rebelling against me." So he concluded 
that they were not to be trusted. Indeed now, 
in the altered circumstances in which he was 
placed, he could see the guilt of rebellion and 
treason, though he had been blind to it before, 
and he actually persecuted and punished some 
of those who had been his confederates in his 
former crimes. A great many cases analogous 
to this have occurred in English history. Sons 
have often made themselves the centre and soul 
of all the opposition in the realm against their 
father's government, and have given their fa- 
thers a great deal of trouble by so doing ; but 
then, in all such cases, the moment that the fa- 
ther dies the son immediately places himself at 
the head of the regularly-constituted authorities 
of the realm, and abandons all his old compan- 
ions and friends, treating them sometimes with 
great severity. His eyes are opened to the 
wickedness of making opposition to the sov- 
ereign power now that the sovereign power is 
vested in himself, and he disgraces and punish- 
es his own former friends for the crime of hav- 
ing aided him in his undutiful behavior. 



1189.] The Coronation. 79 

The massacre of the Jews. Their social position. 



Chapter V. 
The Coronation. 

IT was now time that the coronation should 
take place, and arrangements were accord- 
ingly made for performing this ceremony with 
great magnificence in Westminster Abbey. 
The day of the ceremony acquired a dreadful 
celebrity in history in consequence of a great 
massacre of the Jews, which resulted from an 
insurrection and riot that broke out in Westmin- 
ster and London immediately after the crown- 
ing of the king. The Jews had been hated and 
abhorred by all the Christian nations of Europe 
for many ages. Since they were not believers 
in Christianity, they were considered as little 
better than infidels and heathen, and the gov- 
ernment that oppressed and persecuted them 
the most was considered as doing the greatest 
service to the cause of religion. 

One very curious result followed from the 
legal disabilities that the Jews were under. 
They could not own land, and they were re- 



80 King Kichaed I. [1189. 



The history of the commercial character of the Jews. 

stricted also very much in respect to nearly all 
the avocations open to other men. They con- 
sequently learned gradually to become dealers 
in money and in jewels, this being almost the 
only reputable calling that was left open to them. 
There was another great advantage, too, for 
them, in dealing in property of this kind, and 
that was, that comprising, as such property 
does, great value in small bulk, it could easily 
be concealed, and removed from place to place 
whenever it was specially endangered by the 
edicts of governments or the hostility of ene- 
mies. 

From these and similar reasons the Jews be- 
came bankers and money-lenders, and they are 
to this day the richest bankers and the greatest 
money-lenders in the world. The most power- 
ful emperors and kings often depend upon them 
for the supplies that they require to carry on 
their great undertakings or to defray the ex- 
penses of their wars. 

The Jews had gradually increased in num- 
bers and influence in France until the time of 
the accession of Philip, and then he determined 
to extirpate them from the realm ; so he issued 
an edict by which they were all banished from 
the kingdom, their property was confiscated, 



1189.] The Cokonation. 81 

The persecution of the Jews in France. Conciliating the king. 

and every person that owed them money was 
released from all obligation to pay them. Of 
course, a great many of their debtors would pay 
them, notwithstanding this release, from the in- 
fluence of that natural sense of justice which, 
in all nations and in all ages, has a very great 
control in human hearts ; still, there were others 
who would, of course, avail themselves of this 
opportunity to defraud their creditors of what 
was justly their due ; and being obliged, too, 
at the same time, to fly precipitately from the 
country in consequence of the decree of banish- 
ment, the poor Jews were reduced to a state of 
extreme distress. 

Now the Jews of England, when Henry died 
and Richard succeeded him, began to be afraid 
that the new king would follow Philip's exam- 
ple, and in order to prevent this, and to concil- 
iate Richard's favor, they determined to send a 
delegation to him at Westminster, at the time 
of his coronation, with rich presents which had 
been procured by contributions made by the 
wealthy. Accordingly, on the clay of the coro- 
nation, when the great crowds of people assem- 
bled at Westminster to honor the occasion, 
these Jews came among them. 

The ceremony of the coronation was per- 
F 



82 King Eichard I. [1189. 

A description of the ceremony of coronation. 

formed in the following manner : The king, in 
entering the church and proceeding up toward 
the high altar, walked upon a rich cloth laid 
down for him, which had been dyed with the 
famous Tyrian purple. Over his head was a 
beautifully-wrought canopy of silk, supported 
by four long lances. These lances were borne 
by four great barons of the realm. A great no- 
bleman, the Earl of Albemarle, bore the crown, 
and walked with it before the king as he ad- 
vanced toward the altar. When the earl reach- 
ed the altar he placed the crown upon it. The 
Archbishop of Canterbury stood before the altar 
to receive the king as he approached, and then 
administered the usual oath to him. 
The oath was in three parts : 

1. That all the days of his life he would bear 
peace, honor, and reverence to God and the 
Holy Church, and to all the ordinances thereof. 

2. That he would exercise right, justice, and 
law on the people unto him committed. 

3. That he would abrogate wicked laws and 
perverse customs, if any such should be brought 
into his kingdom, and that he would enact good 
laws, and the same in good faith keep, without 
mental reservation. 

Having taken this oath, the king removed 



1189.] The Coronation. 83 

The ainpnlla. The coronation. Presents. 

his upper garment, and put golden sandals upon 
his feet, and then was anointed by the arch- 
bishop with the holy oil on his head, breast, 
and shoulders. This oil was poured from a 
rich vessel called an ampulla* 

The anointing having been performed, the 
king received various articles of royal dress and 
decoration from the hands of the great nobles 
around him, who officiated as servitors on the 
occasion, and with their assistance put them on. 
When thus robed and adorned, he advanced up 
the steps of the altar. As he went up, the 
archbishop adjured him in the name of the liv- 
ing God not to assume the crown unless he was 
fully resolved to keep the oaths that lie had 
sworn. Richard again solemnly called God to 
witness that he would faithfully keep them, and 
then advancing to the altar, he took the crown 
and put it into the hands of the archbishop, who 
then placed it upon his head, and thus the cor- 
onation ceremony was completed. 

The people who had presents for the king 
now approached and offered them to him. 

* The ampulla used now for anointing the English sov- 
ereigns is in the form of an eagle. It is made of the purest 
chased gold, and weighs about ten ounces. It is deposited 
in the Tower of London. 



84 King Richard I. [1189. 

Hostility and jealousy of the people. 

Among them came the Jews. Their presents 
were very rich and valuable, and the king re- 
ceived them very gladly, although in announcing 
the arrangements for the ceremony he had de- 
clared that no Jew and no woman was to be 
allowed to be present. Notwithstanding this 
prohibition, the Jewish deputation had come in 
and offered their presents among the rest. 
There was, however, a great murmuring among 
the crowd in respect to them, and a great de- 
sire to drive them out. This crowd consisted 
chiefly, of course, of barons, earls, knights, and 
other great dignitaries of the realm, for very few 
of the lower ranks would be admitted to see the 
ceremony ; and these people, in addition to the 
usual religious prejudice against the Jews, had 
many of them been exasperated against the 
bankers and money-lenders on account of diffi- 
culties that they had had with them in relation 
to money that they had borrowed, and to the 
high interest which they had been compelled to 
pay. Some wise observer of the working of 
human passions has said that men always hate 
more or less those to whom they owe money. 
This is a reason why there should ordinarily be 
very few pecuniary transactions between friends. 
At length, as one of the Jews who was out- 



1189.] The Coronation. 85 

An altercation. Hunting out the Jews. 

side was attempting to go in, a by-stander at 
the gate cried out, "Here comes a Jew!" and 
struck at him. This excited the passions of 
the rest, and they struck and pushed the poor 
Jew in order to drive him back ; and at the 
same time a general outcry against the Jews 
arose, and spread into the interior of the hall. 
The people there, glad of the opportunity af- 
forded them by the excitement, began to as- 
sault the Jews and drive them out ; and as 
they came out at the door beaten and bruised, 
a rumor was raised that they had been expelled 
by the king's orders. This rumor, as it spread 
through the streets, was soon changed into a 
report that the king had ordered all the unbe- 
lievers to be destroyed ; and so, whenever a 
Jew was found in the street, a riot was raised 
about him, he was assaulted with sticks and 
stones, cruelly beaten, and if he was not killed, 
he was driven to seek refuge in his home, wound- 
ed and bleeding. 

In the mean time, the news that the king had 
ordered all the Jews to be killed spread rapidly 
over the town, and in the evening crowds col- 
lected, and after murdering all the Jews that 
they could find in the streets, they gathered 
round their houses, and finally broke into them 



86 King Richard I. [1189. 

The terrors of the massacre. Indifference of the king. 

and killed the inhabitants. In some cases 
where the houses were strong, the Jews barri- 
caded the doors and the mob could not get in. 
In such cases they brought combustibles, and 
piled them up before the windows and doors, 
and then, setting them on fire, they burned the 
houses to the ground, and men, women, and 
children were consumed together in the flames. 
If any of the unhappy wretches burning in 
these fires attempted to escape by leaping from 
the windows, the mob below held up spears and 
lances for them to fall upon. 

There were so many of these fires in the 
course of the night that the whole sky was il- 
luminated, and at one time there was danger 
that the flames would spread so as to produce 
a general conflagration. Indeed, as the night 
passed on, the excitement became more and 
more violent, until at length the streets, in all 
the quarters where Jews resided, were filled 
with the shouts of the mob, raving in demoni- 
acal phrenzy, and with the screams of the ter- 
rified and dying sufferers, and the crackling of 
the lurid flames in which they were burning. 

The king, in the mean time, was carousing 
with his lords and barons in the great banquet- 
ing-hall at Westminster, and for a time took 



1189.] The Coronation. 87 

The mob unchecked. The impunity of the rioters. 

no notice of these disturbances. He seemed to 
consider them as of very little moment. At 
length, however, in the course of the night, he 
sent an officer and a few men to suppress the 
riot. But it was too late. The mob paid no 
heed to remonstrances which came from the 
leader of so small a force, but, on the other 
hand, threatened to kill the soldiers too, if they 
did not go away. So the officer returned to 
the king, and the riot went on undisturbed un- 
til about two o'clock of the next day, when it 
gradually ceased from the mere weariness and 
exhaustion of the people. 

A few of the men who had been engaged in 
this riot were afterward brought to trial, and 
three were hung, not for murdering Jews, but 
for burning some Christian houses, which, either 
by mistake or accident, took fire in the confu- 
sion and were burned with the rest. This was 
all that was ever done to punish this dreadful 
crime. 

In justice to King Richard, however, it must 
be stated that he issued an edict after this for- 
bidding that the Jews should be injured or mal- 
treated any more. He took the whole people, 
he said, thenceforth under his special protec- 
tion, and all men were strictly forbidden to harm 



88 King Richard I. [1189. 



King Richard's edict. 



them personally, or to molest them in the pos- 
session of their property. 

And this was the terrible coronation scene 
which signalized the investiture of Richard with 
the crown and the royal robes of England. 



1189.] Preparations. 89 

Richard was thirty-two years of age at his accession. 



Chapter VI. 
Preparations for the Crusade. 

AT the time of liis accession to the throne, 
Richard, as has already been remarked, 
was about thirty-two years of age. On the fol- 
lowing page you have a portrait of him, with 
the crown upon his head. 

This portrait is taken from a sculpture on 
his tomb, and is undoubtedly a good repre- 
sentation of him as he appeared when he was 
alive. 

The first thing that Richard turned his at- 
tention to, when he found himself securely seat- 
ed on his throne, was the preparation for a cru- 
sade. It had been the height of his ambition 
for a lono; time to lead a crusade. It was un- 
doubtedly through the influence of his mother, 
and of her early conversations with him, that he 
imbibed his extraordinary eagerness to seek ad- 
ventures in the Holy Land. She had been a 
crusader herself during her first marriage, as 
has already been related in this volume, and 
she had undoubtedly, in Richard's early life, 



90 



King Kichard I. 



[1189. 



His ardent desires for distinction in crusades. 

entertained him with a thousand stories of what 
she had seen, and of the romantic adventures 
which she had met with there. These stories, 




PORTRAIT OF RICHARD I. 

and the various conversations which arose out 
of them, kindled Richard's youthful imagination 
with ardent desires to go and distinguish him- 
self on the same field. These desires had been 



1189.] Preparations. 91 



Motives of the crusaders. A strange delusion. 

greatly increased as Richard grew up to man- 
hood by observing the exalted military glory 
to which successful crusaders attained. And 
then, besides this, Richard was endued with a 
sort of reckless and lion-like courage, which led 
him to look upon danger as a sport, and made 
him long for a field where there were plenty of 
enemies to fight, and enemies so abhorred by 
the whole Christian world that he could indulge 
in the excitement of hatred and rage against 
them without any restraint whatever. He 
could there satiate himself, too, with the luxury 
of killing men without any misgiving of con- 
science, or, at least, without any condemnation 
on the part of his fellow-men, for it was under- 
stood throughout Christendom that the crimes 
committed against the Saracens in the Holy 
Land were committed in the name of Christ. 
What a strange delusion ! To think of honor- 
ing the memory of the meek and lowly Jesus 
by utterly disregarding his peaceful precepts 
and his loving and gentle example, and going 
forth in thousands to the work of murder, rap- 
ine, and devastation, in order to get possession 
of his tomb. 

In preparing for the crusade, the first and 



92 King Richard I. [1189. 

The preparations. Navies. Armies. Accoutrements. 

most important thing to be attended to, in Rich- 
ard's view, was the raising of money. A great 
deal of money would he required, as has already 
been intimated, to fit out the expedition on the 
magnificent scale which Richard intended. There 
was a fleet of ships to be built and equipped, 
and stores of provisions to be put on board. 
There were armies to be levied and paid, and 
immense expenses were to be incurred in the 
manufacture of arms and ammunition. The 
armor and the arms used in those days, espe- 
cially those worn by knights and noblemen, 
and the caparisons of the horses, were extreme- 
ly costly. The armor was fashioned with great 
labor and skill out of plates or rings of steel, 
and the helmets, and the bucklers, and the 
swords, and all the military trappings of the 
horses and horsemen, being fashioned altogeth- 
er by hand, required great labor and skill in the 
artisan who made them ; and then, moreover, it 
was customary to decorate them very profusely 
with embroidery, and gold, and gems. At the 
present day, men display their wealth in the 
costliness of their houses, and the gorgeousness 
and luxury of the furniture which they con- 
tain. It is not considered in good taste — ex- 
cept for ladies — to make a display of wealth 



1189.] Preparations. 93 

Customs of old times. Richard's reckless course. 

upon the person. In those days, however, the 
reverse was the case. The knights and barons 
lived in the rudest stone castles, dark and frown- 
ing without, and meagerly furnished and com- 
fortless within, while all the means of display 
which the owners possessed were lavished in 
arming and decorating themselves and their 
horses magnificently for the field of battle. 

For all these things Richard knew that he 
should require a large sum of money, and he 
proceeded at once to carry into effect the most 
wasteful and reckless measures for obtaining it. 
His father, Henry the Second, had in various 
ways acquired a great many estates in differ- 
ent parts of the kingdom, which estates lie had 
added to the royal domains. These Richard 
at once proceeded to sell to whomsoever would 
give the most for them. In this manner he dis- 
posed of a great number of castles, fortresses, 
and towns, so as greatly to diminish the value 
of the crown property. The purchasers of this 
property, if they had not money enough of their 
own to pay for what they bought, would bor- 
row of the Jews. Some of the king's counsel- 
ors remonstrated with him against this waste- 
ful policy, but he replied that he needed money 
so much for the crusade, that, if necessary, he 



94 King Richard I. [1189. 

Richard sold lands, offices, and titles of honor. 

would sell the city of London itself to raise it, 
if he could only find a man rich enough to be 
the purchaser. 

After having raised as much money as he 
could by the sale of the royal lands, the next 
resource to which Richard turned was the sale 
of public offices and titles of honor. He look- 
ed about the country for wealthy men, and he 
offered them severally high office on condition 
of their paying large sums of money into the 
treasury as a consideration for them. He sold 
titles of nobility, too, in the same way. If any 
man who was not rich held a high or important 
office, he would find some pretext for removing 
him, and then would offer the office for sale. 
One of the historians of those times says that 
at this period Richard's presence-chamber be- 
came a regular place of trade — like the count- 
ing-room of a merchant or an exchange — where 
every thing that could be derived from the 
bounty of the crown or bestowed by the royal 
prerogative was offered for sale in open market 
to the man who would give the best bargain 
for it. 

Another of the modes which the king adopt- 
ed for raising money, and in some respects the 
worst of all, was to impose fines as a punish- 



1189.] Peepaeations. 95 

Extortion under pretense of public justice. 

ment for crime, and then, in order to make the 
fines produce as much as possible, every imag- 
inable pretext was resorted to to charge wealthy 
persons with offenses, with a view of exacting 
large sums from them as the penalty. It was 
said that a great officer of state was charged 
with some offense, and was put in prison and 
not released until he had paid a fine of three 
thousand pounds. 

One of the worst of these cases was that of 
his half-brother Geoffrey, the son of Rosamond. 
Geoffrey had been appointed Archbishop of 
York in accordance with the wish that his fa- 
ther Henry had expressed on his death-bed. 
Richard pretended to be displeased with this. 
Perhaps he wished to have had that office to 
dispose of like the rest. At any rate, he ex- 
acted a very large sum from Geoffrey as the 
condition on which lie would "grant him his 
peace," as he termed it, and Geoffrey paid the 
money. 

When, by these and other similar means,Rich- 
ard had raised all that he could in England, he 
prepared to cross the Channel into Normandy, 
in order to see what more he could do there. 
Before he went, however, he had first to make 
arrangements for a regency to govern England 



96 


King 


Eichard 


I. 


[1189. 


Creating a regency. 






Richard's regents. 



while he should be away. This is always the 
custom in monarchical countries. Whenever, 
for any reason, the true sovereign can not per- 
sonally exercise the supreme power, whether 
from minority, insanity, long - continued sick- 
ness, or protracted absence from the realm, a 
regency, as it is called, is created to govern the 
kingdom in his stead. The person appointed 
to act as regent is usually some near relation 
of the king. Richard's brother John hoped to 
be made regent, but this did not suit Richard's 
views, for he wished to make this office the 
means, as all the others had been, of raising 
money, and John had no money to give. For 
the same reason, he could not appoint his moth- 
er, who in other respects would have been a 
very suitable person. So Richard contrived a 
sort of middle course. He sold the nominal 
regency to two wealthy courtiers, whom he as- 
sociated together for the purpose. One was a 
bishop, and the other was an earl. It may, 
perhaps, be too much to say that he directly 
sold them the office, but, at any rate, he ap- 
pointed them jointly to it, and under the ar- 
rangement that was made he received a large 
sum of money. He, however, stipulated that 
John, and also his mother, should have a large 



1189.] Preparations. 97 

John's acquiescence. The time for sailing appointed. 

share of influence in deciding upon all the meas- 
ures of the government. John would have been 
by no means satisfied with this divided and un- 
certain share of power were it not that he was 
so desirous of favoring the expedition in every 
possible way, in hopes that if Richard could 
once get to the Holy Land he would soon per- 
ish there, and that then he should be king alto- 
gether. It was of comparatively little conse- 
quence who was regent in the mean time. So 
he resolved to make no objection to any plan 
that the king might propose. 

Richard was now ready to cross to Norman- 
dy ; but just before he went there came a dep- 
utation from Philip to consult with him in re- 
spect to the plans of the crusade, and to fix 
upon the time for setting out. The time pro- 
posed by Philip was the latter part of March. 
It was now late in the fall. It would not be 
safe to set out before March on account of the 
inclemency of the season, and Richard supposed 
that he should have ample time to complete his 
preparations by the time that Philip named. 
So both parties agreed to it, and they took a 
solemn oath on both sides that they would all 
be ready without fail. 

Soon after this Richard took leave of his 
G 



98 King Richard I. [1189. 

Richard crosses the Channel. Fears of treachery. 

friends, and, accompanied by a long retinue of 
earls, barons, knights, and other adventurers 
who were to accompany him to the Holy Land, 
he left England, and crossed the Channel to 
Normandy. 

In such cases as this there are always a great 
many last words to be said and a great many 
last arrangements to be made, and Richard 
found it necessary to see his mother and his 
brother John again before finally taking his de- 
parture from Europe. So he sent for them to 
come to Normandy, and there another great 
council of state was held, at which every thing 
in relation to the internal affairs of his domin- 
ions was finally arranged. There was still one 
other danger to be guarded against, and that 
was some treachery on the part of Philip him- 
self. So little reliance did these valiant cham- 
pions of Christianity place in each other in those 
days, that both Richard and Philip, in joining 
together to form this expedition, had many mis- 
givings and suspicions in respect to each other's 
honesty. Undoubtedly neither of them would 
have thought it safe to leave his dominions and 
go on a crusade unless the other had been go- 
ing too. The one left behind would have been 
sure to have found some pretext, during the ab- 



1189.] Preparations. 99 

The treaty of alliance between Richard and Philip. 

sence of his neighbor, to invade his dominions 
and plunder him of some of his possessions. 
This was one reason why the two kings had 
agreed to go together ; and now, as an addition- 
al safeguard, they made a formal treaty of alli- 
ance and fraternity, in which they bound them- 
selves by the most solemn oaths to stand by 
each other, and to be faithful and true to each 
other to the last. They agreed that each would 
defend the life and honor of the other on all oc- 
casions ; that neither would desert the other in 
the hour of danger ; and that, in respect to the 
dominions that they were respectively to leave 
behind them, neither would form any designs 
against the other, but that Philip would cher- 
ish and protect the rights of Richard even as 
he would protect his own city of Paris, and that 
Richard would do the like by Philip, even as 
he would protect his own city of Rouen. 

It is a curious circumstance that in this 
treaty Richard should name Rouen, and not 
London, as his principal capital. It confirms 
what is known in many other ways, that the 
kings of this line, reigning over botli Norman- 
dy and England, considered Normandy as the 
chief centre of their power, and England as sub- 
ordinate. It may be, however, that one reason 



100 Kino Eichard I. [1189. 



Completion of the preparations. 



why Rouen was named in this instance may 
have been because it was nearer to the domin- 
ions of the King of France, and so better known 
to him. 

This treaty was signed in February, and the 
preparations were now nearly complete for set- 
ting forth on the expedition in March, at the 
appointed time. 



1190.] The Embarkation. 101 

The plan of embarking the troops. 



Chapter VII. 
The Embarkation. 

THE plan which Richard had formed for 
conveying his expedition to the Holy Land 
was to embark it on board a fleet of ships which 
he was sending round to Marseilles for this pur- 
pose, with orders to await him there. Mar- 
seilles is in the south of France, not far from 
the Mediterranean Sea. Richard might have 
embarked his troops in the English Channel ; 
but that, as the reader will see from looking on 
the map of Europe, would require them to take 
a long sea voyage around the coasts of France 
and Spain, and through the Straits of Gibral- 
tar. Richard thought it best to avoid this long 
circuit for his troops, and so he sent the ships 
round, with no more men on board than neces- 
sary to manoeuvre them, while he marched his 
army across France by land. 

As for Philip, he had no ships of his own. 
England was a maritime country, and had long 
possessed a fleet. This fleet had been very 
much increased by the exertions of Henry the 



102 King Eiciiard I. [1190. 

The English fleet. The French forces. Richard's rule?. 



Second, Richard's father, who had built several 
new ships, some of them of very large size, ex- 
pressly for the purpose of transporting troops 
to Palestine. Henry himself did not live to 
execute his plans, and so he left his ships for 
Richard. 

France, on the other hand, was not then a 
maritime country. Most of the harbors on the 
northern coast belonged to Normandy, and even 
at the south the ports did not belong to the 
King of France. Philip, therefore, had no fleet 
of his own, but he had made arrangements with 
the republic of Genoa to furnish him with ships, 
and so his plan was to march over the mount- 
ains to that city and embark there, while Rich- 
ard should go south to Marseilles. 

Richard drew up a curious set of rules and 
regulations for the government of this fleet 
while it was making the passage. Some of the 
rules were the following : 

1. That if any man killed another, the mur- 
derer was to be lashed to the dead body and 
buried alive with it, if the murder was commit- 
ted in port or on the land. If the crime was 
committed at sea, then the two bodies, bound 
together as before, were to be launched over- 
board. 



1190.] The Embabkation. 103 

The origin of tarring and feathering. Command of the fleet 

2. If any man, with a knife or with any other 
weapon, struck another so as to draw blood, 
then he was to be punished by being ducked 
three times over head and ears by being let 
down from the yard-arm of the ship into the sea. 

3. For all sorts of profane and abusive lan- 
guage, the punishment was a fine of an ounce 
of silver for each offense. 

4. Any man convicted of theft, or "pickerie" 
as it was called, was to have his head shaved 
and hot pitch poured over it, and upon that the 
feathers of some pillow or cushion were to be 
shaken. The offender was then to be turned 
ashore on the first land that the ship might 
reach, and there be abandoned to his fate. 

The penalty named in this last article is the 
first instance in which any account of the pun- 
ishment of tarring and feathering is mentioned, 
and this is supposed to be the origin of that ex- 
traordinary and very cruel mode of punishment. 

The king put the fleet under the command 
of three grand officers of his court, and he com- 
manded all his seamen and marines to obey 
them strictly in all things, as they would obey 
the king himself if he had been on board. 

The fleet met with a great variety of adven- 
tures on its way to Marseilles. It had not pro- 



104 King Richard I. [1190. 

The fleet dispersed by a storm. A delay in Lisbon. 

ceeded far before a great tempest arose, and scat- 
tered the ships in every direction. At last, a 
considerable number of them succeeded in mak- 
ing their way, in a disabled condition, into the 
Tagus, in order to seek succor in Lisbon. The 
King of Portugal was at this time at war with 
the Moors, who had come over from Africa and 
invaded his dominions. He proposed to the 
Crusaders on board the ships to wait a little 
while, and assist him in fighting the Moors. 
" They are as great infidels," said he, " as any 
that you will find in the Holy Land." The 
commanders of the fleet acceded to this propo- 
sal, but the crews, when they were landed, soon 
made so many riots in Lisbon, and involved 
themselves in such frequent and bloody affrays 
with the people of the city, that the King of 
Portugal was soon eager to send them away; 
so, in due time, they embarked again, in order 
to continue their voyage. 

In the mean time, while the fleet was thus 
going round by sea, Richard and Philip were 
engaged in assembling their forces and making 
preparation to march by land. The two armies, 
when finally organized, came together at a place 
of rendezvous called Yczelai, where there were 
great plains suitable for the camping-ground of 



1190.] The Embarkation. 105 

The rendezvous at Vezelai. Devastation by the armies. 

a great military force. Vezelai was on the road 
to Lyons, and the armies, after they had met, 
marched in company to the latter city. The 
number of troops assembled was very great. 
The united army amounted, it is said, to one 
hundred thousand men. This was a very large 
force for those days. The great difficulty was 
to find provision for them from day to day 
during the march. Supplies of provisions for 
such a host can not be carried far, so that ar- 
mies are obliged to live on the produce of the 
country that they march through, which is col- 
lected for this purpose by foragers from day to 
day. The allied armies, as they moved slowly 
on, impoverished and distressed the whole coun- 
try through which they passed, by devouring 
every thing that the people had in store. At 
length, after marching together for some time, 
they came to the place where the roads sep- 
arated, and King Philip turned off to the left 
in order to proceed through the passes of the 
Alps toward Genoa, while Richard and his hosts 
proceeded southward toward Marseilles. 

When he reached Marseilles, Richard found 
that his fleet had not arrived. The delay was 
occasioned by the storm, and the subsequent 
detention of the crews at Lisbon. And yet this 



106 King Richard I. [1190. 

Richard goes to the East in advance of his fleet. 

was very long after the time originally appoint- 
ed for the sailing of the expedition. The time 
first appointed was the last of March ; but 
Philip could not go at that time, on account of 
the death of his queen, which took place just 
before the appointed period. Nor was Richard 
himself ready. It was not until the thirtieth 
of August that the fleet arrived at Marseilles. 

When Richard found that the fleet had not 
come he was greatly disappointed. He had no 
means of knowing when to expect it, for there 
were no postal or other communications across 
the country in those days, as now, by which 
tidings could be conveyed to him. He waited 
eight days very impatiently, and then concluded 
to go on himself toward the East, and leave 
orders for the fleet to follow him. So he hired 
ten large vessels and twenty galleys of the mer- 
chants of Marseilles, and in these he embarked 
a portion of his forces, leaving the rest to come 
in the great fleet when it should arrive. They 
were to proceed to Messina in Sicily, where 
Richard was to join them. With the vessels 
that he had hired he proceeded along the coast 
to Genoa, where he found Philip, the French 
king, who had arrived there safely before him 
by land. 



1190.] The Embarkation. 107 

The rendezvous at Messina. Joanna. Richard's visit. 

From Marseilles to Genoa the course lies to- 
ward the northeast along the coast of France. 
Thence, in going toward Messina, it turns to- 
ward the southeast, and follows the coast of 
Italy. The route may be traced very easily 
on any map of modern Europe. The reason 
why Messina had been appointed as the great 
intermediate rendezvous of the fleet was two- 
fold. In the first place, it was a convenient 
port for this purpose, being a good harbor, and 
being favorably situated about midway of the 
voyage. Then, besides, Richard had a sister 
residing there. Her name was Joanna. She 
had married the king of the country. Her 
husband had died, it is true, and she was, at 
that time, in some sense retired from public life. 
She was, indeed, in some distress, for the throne 
had been seized by a certain Tancred, who was 
her enemy, and, as she maintained, not the 
rightful successor of her husband. So Rich- 
ard resolved, in stopping at Messina, to inquire 
into and redress his sister's wrongs ; or, rather, 
he thought the occasion offered him a favorable 
opportunity to interfere in the affairs of Sicily, 
and to lord it over the government and people 
there in his usual arrogant and domineering 
manner. 



108 King Eichard I. 


[1190. 


King Richard's excursions. Ostia. 


A quarrel. 



After waiting a short time at Genoa, Eichard 
set sail again in one of his small vessels, and 
proceeded to the southward along the coast of 
Italy. He touched at several places on the 
coast, in order to visit celebrated cities or oth- 
er places of interest. He sailed up the Eiver 
Arno, which you will find, on the map, flowing 
into the Gulf of Genoa a little to the northward 
of Leghorn. There are two renowned cities on 
this river, which are very much visited by tour- 
ists and travelers of the present day, Florence 
and Pisa. Pisa is near the mouth of the river. 
Florence is much farther inland. Eichard sail- 
ed up as far as Pisa. After visiting that city, 
he returned again to the mouth of the river, and 
then proceeded on his way down the coast un- 
til he came to the Tiber, and entered that riv- 
er. He landed at Ostia, a small port near the 
mouth of it — the port, in fact, of Eome. One 
reason why he landed at Ostia was that the gal- 
ley in which he was making the voyage required 
some repairs, and this was a convenient place 
for making them. 

Perhaps, too, it ivas his intention to visit 
Eome ; but while at Ostia he became involved 
in a quarrel with the bishop that resided there, 
which led him at length to leave Ostia abruptly, 



1190.] The Embarkation. 109 

Why Richard quarreled with the bishop. 

and to refuse to go to Rome. The cause of the 
quarrel was the bishop's asking him to pay 
some money that he owed the Pope. In all the' 
Catholic countries of Europe, in those days,- 
there were certain taxes and fees that were col- 
lected for the Pope, the income from which was 
of great importance in making up the papal 
revenues. Now Richard, in his eagerness to 
secure all the money he could obtain in En- 
gland to supply his wants for the crusade, had 
appropriated to his own use certain of these 
church funds, and the bishop now called upon 
him to reimburse them. This application, as 
might have been expected, made Richard ex- 
tremely angry. He assailed the bishop with 
the most violent and abusive language, and 
charged all sorts of corruption and wickedness 
against the papal government itself. These 
charges may have been true, but the occasion 
of being called upon to pay a debt was not the 
proper time for making them. To make the 
faults or misconduct of others, whether real or 
pretended, an excuse for not rendering them 
their just dues, is a very base proceeding. 

As soon as Richard's galley was repaired, he 
embarked on board of it in a rage, and sailed 
away. The next point at which he landed was 
Naples. 



110 King Richard I. [1190. 

Maples and Vesuvius. The crypt. 

Richard was greatly delighted with the city 
of Naples, which, rising as it does from the 
shores of an enchanting bay, and near the base 
of the volcano Vesuvius, has long been cele- 
brated for the romantic beauty of its situation. 
Richard remained at Naples several days. There 
is an account of his going, while there, to per- 
form his devotions in the crypt of a church. 
The crypt is a subterranean apartment beneath 
the church, the floors above it, as well as the 
pillars and walls of the church, being support- 
ed by immense piers and arches, which give the 
crypt the appearance of a dungeon. The place 
is commonly used for tombs and places of sep- 
ulture for the dead. In the crypt where Richard 
worshiped at Naples, the dead bodies were ar- 
ranged in niches all around the walls. They 
were dressed as they had been when alive, and 
their countenances, dry and shriveled, were ex- 
posed to view, presenting a ghastly and horrid 
spectacle. It was such means as these that 
were resorted to, in the Middle Ages, for making- 
religious impressions on the minds of men. 

After spending some days in Naples, Richard 
concluded that he would continue his route ; 
but, instead of embarking at once on board his 
galley, he determined to go across the mountains 



1190.] The Embaekation. Ill 

Salerno. Richard's visit there. The fleet. 

by land to Salerno, which town lies on the sea- 
coast at some distance south of Naples. By 
looking at any map of Italy, you will observe 
that a great promontory puts out into the sea 
just below Naples, forming the Gulf of Salerno 
on the south side of it. The pass through the 
mountains which Richard followed led across 
the neck of this promontory. His galley, to- 
gether with the other galleys that accompanied 
him, he sent round by water. There was a 
great deal to interest him at Salerno, for it was 
a place where many parties of crusaders, Nor- 
mans among the rest, had landed before, and 
they had built churches and monasteries, and 
founded institutions of learning there, all of 
which Richard was much interested in visiting. 
He accordingly remained in Salerno several 
days, until at length his fleet of galleys, which 
had come round from Naples by sea, arrived. 
Richard, however, in the mean time, had found 
traveling by land so agreeable, that he concluded 
to continue his journey in that way, leaving his 
fleet to sail down the coast, keeping all the time 
as near as possible to the shore. The king him- 
self rode on upon the land, accompanied by a 
very small troop of attendants. His way led 
him sometimes among the mountains of the in- 



112 King Eichard I. [1190. 

Richard pursuing his journey along the coast of the Mediterranean. 

terior, and sometimes near the margin of the 
shore. At some points, where the road ap- 
proached so near to the cliffs as to afford a good 
view of the sea, the fleet of galleys were to be 
seen in the offing prosperously pursuing their 
voyage. 

The king went on in this way till he reached 
Calabria, which is the country situated in the 
southern portion of Italy. The roads here were 
very bad, and as the autumn was now coming 
on, many of the streams became so swollen with 
rains that it was difficult sometimes for him to 
proceed on'his way. At one time, while he was 
thus journeying, he became involved in a diffi- 
culty with a party of peasants which was ex- 
tremely discreditable to him, and exhibits his 
character in a very unfavorable light. It seems 
that he was traveling by an obscure country 
road, in company with only a single attendant, 
when he happened to pass by a village, where 
lie was told a peasant lived who had a very fine 
hunting hawk or falcon. Hunting by means 
of these hawks was a common amusement of the 
knights and nobles of those days; and Richard, 
when he heard about this hawk, said that a 
plain countryman had no business with such a 
bird. He declared that he would go to his 



1190.] The Embarkation. 115 

Richard's tyrannical disposition. Stealing the falcon. 

house and take it away from him. This act, 
so characteristic of the despotic arrogance which 
marked Richard's character, shows that the reck- 
less ferocity for which he was so renowned was 
not softened or alleviated by any true and gen- 
uine nobleness or generosity. For a rich and 
powerful king thus to rob a poor, helpless peas- 
ant, and on such a pretext too, was as base a 
deed as we can well conceive a royal personage 
to perform. 

Richard at once proceeded to carry his design 
into execution. He went into the peasant's 
house, and having, under some pretext or oth- 
er, got possession of the falcon, he began to ride 
away with the bird on his wrist. The peasant 
called out to him to give him back his bird. 
Richard paid no attention to him, but rode on. 
The peasant then called for help, and other vil- 
lagers joining him, they followed the king, each 
one having seized in the mean time such weapons 
as came most readily to hand. They surround- 
ed the king in order to take the falcon away, 
while he attempted to beat them off with his 
sword. Pretty soon lie broke his sword by a 
blow which he struck at one of the peasants, 
and then he was in a great measure defenseless. 
His only safety now was in flight. He con- 



116 King Kichard I. [1190. 

Richard flees to a priory to escape the peasants. 

trived to force his way through the circle that 
surrounded him, and began to gallop away, fol- 
lowed by his attendant. At length he succeed- 
ed in reaching a priory, where he was received 
and protected from farther danger, having, in 
the mean time, given up the falcon. When the 
excitement had subsided he resumed his jour- 
ney, and at length, without any farther adven- 
tures, reached the coast at the point nearest to 
Sicily. Here he passed the night in a tent, 
which he pitched upon the rocks on the shore, 
waiting for arrangements to be made on the 
next day for his public entrance into the harbor 
of Messina, which lay just opposite to him, 
across the narrow strait that here separates the 
island of Sicily from the main land. 



1190.] Richard at Messina. 117 



The triumphal entry into Messina. 



Chapter VIII. 
King Richard at Messina. 

ALTHOUGH Richard came down to the 
Italian shore, opposite to Messina, almost 
unattended and alone, and under circumstances 
so ignoble — fugitive as he was from a party of 
peasants whom he had incensed by an act of 
petty robbery — he yet made his entry at last 
into the town itself with a great display of 
pomp and parade. He remained on the Italian 
side of the strait, after he arrived on the shore, 
until he had sent over to Messina, and inform- 
ed the officers of his fleet, which, by the way, 
had already arrived there, that he had come. 
The whole fleet immediately got ready, and 
came over to the Italian side to take Richard 
on board and escort him over. Richard enter- 
ed the harbor with his fleet as if he were a con- 
queror returning home. The ships and galleys 
were all fully manned and gayly decorated, and 
Richard arranged such a number of musicians 
on the decks of them to blow trumpets and 
horns as the fleet sailed along the shores and 



118 King Richard I. [1190. 

The jealousy of the Sicilians and the envy of the French. 

entered the harbor that the air was filled with 
the echoes of them, and the whole country was 
called out by the sound. The Sicilians were 
quite alarmed to see so formidable a host of 
foreign soldiers coming among them ; and even 
their allies, the French, were not pleased. Phil- 
ip began to be jealous of Richard's superior 
power, and to be alarmed at his assuming and 
arrogant demeanor. Philip had arrived in Mes- 
sina some time before this, but his fleet, which 
was originally an inferior one, having consisted 
of such vessels only as he could hire at Genoa, 
had been greatly injured by storms during the 
passage, so that he had reached Messina in a 
very crippled condition. And now to see Rich- 
ard coming in apparently so much his superior, 
and with so evident a disposition to make a pa- 
rade of his superiority, made him anxious and 
uneasy. 

The same feeling manifested itself, too, among 
his troops, and this to such a degree as to 
threaten to break out into open quarrels be- 
tween the soldiers of the two armies. 

" It will never answer," thought Philip, " foi 
us both to remain long at Messina ; so I will 
set out again myself as soon as I possibly 
can." 



1190.] Richard at Messina. 119 

The winter sets in upon Richard and Philip in Sicily. 

Indeed, there was another very decisive rea- 
son for Philip's soon continuing his voyage, and 
that was the necessity of diminishing the num- 
ber of soldiers now at Messina on account of 
the difficulty of finding sustenance for them all. 
Philip accordingly made all haste to refit his 
fleet and to sail away ; but he was again unfor- 
tunate. He encountered another storm, and 
was obliged to put back again, and before he 
could be ready a second time the winter set in, 
and he was obliged to give up all hope of leav- 
ing Sicily until the spring. 

The two kings had foreseen this difficulty, 
and had earnestly endeavored to avoid it by 
making all their arrangements in the first in- 
stance for setting out from England and France 
in March, which was the earliest possible season 
for navigating the Mediterranean safely with 
such vessels as they had in those days. But 
this plan the reader will recollect had been frus- 
trated by the death of Philip's queen, and the 
delays attendant upon that event, as well as 
other delays arising from other causes, and it 
was past midsummer before the expedition was 
ready to take its departure. The kings had 
still hoped to have reached the Holy Land be- 
fore winter, but now they found themselves 



120 King Eichakd I. [1190. 

Winter quarters. Tancred. His history. 

stopped on the way, and Philip, with many 
misgivings in respect to the result, prepared to 
make the best arrangements that he could for 
putting his men into winter quarters. 

Eichard did in the end become involved in 
difficulties with Philip and with the French 
troops, but the most serious affair which occu- 
pied his attention was a very extraordinary 
quarrel which he instigated between himself 
and the king of the country. The name of this 

kino- was Tancred. 

o 

The kingdom of Sicily in those days in- 
cluded not merely the island of Sicily, but also 
nearly all the southern part of Italy — all that 
part, namely, which forms the foot and ankle of 
Italy, as seen upon the map. It has already 
been said that Eichard's sister Joanna some 
years ago married the king of this country. 
The name of the king whom Joanna married 
was William, and he was now dead. Tancred 
was his successor, though not the regular and 
rightful heir. In order that the reader may un- 
derstand the nature of the quarrel which broke 
out between Tancred and Eichard, it is neces- 
sary to explain how it happened that Tancred 
succeeded to the throne. 

If William, Joanna's husband, had had a 



1190.] Richard at Messina. 121 

William of Sicily. Constance. Oath of allegiance. 



son, he would have been the rightful successor ; 
but William had no children, and some time 
before his death he gave up all expectation of 
ever having any, so he began to look around 
and consider who should be his heir. 

He fixed his mind upon a lady, the Princess 
Constance, who was his cousin and his nearest 
relative. She would have been the heir had it 
not been that the usages of the realm did not 
allow a woman to reign. There was another 
relative of William, a young man named Tail- 
ored. For some reasons, William was very un- 
willing that Tancred should succeed him. He 
knew, however, that the people would be ex- 
tremely averse to receive Constance as their 
sovereign instead of Tancred, on account of her 
being a woman ; but he thought that he might 
obviate this objection in some degree by arrang- 
ing a marriage for her with some powerful 
prince. This he finally succeeded in doing. 
The prince whom he chose was a son of the 
Emperor of Germany. His name was Henry. 
Constance was married to him, and after her 
marriage she left Sicily and went home with her 
husband. William then assembled all his bar- 
ons, and made them take an oath of allegiance 
to Constance and Henry, as rightful sovereigns 



122 King Eichaed I. [1190. 

Joanna's estates in the promontory of Mont G-argano. 

niter his decease. Supposing every thing to be 
thus amicably arranged, he settled himself qui- 
etly in his capital, the city of Palermo, intend- 
ing to live there in peace with his wife for the 
remainder of his days. 

When he married Joanna, he had given her, 
for her dower, a large territory of rich estates 
in Italy. These estates were all together, and 
comprised what is called the promontory of 
Mont Gargano. You will see this promontory 
represented on any map of Italy by a small pro- 
jection on the heel, or, rather, a little way above 
the heel of the foot, on the eastern side of the 
peninsula. It is nearly opposite to Naples. 
This territory was large, and contained, besides 
a number of valuable landed estates, several 
castles, with lakes and forests adjoining ; also 
two monasteries, with their pastures, woods, and 
vineyards, and several beautiful lakes. These 
estates, and all the income from them, were se- 
cured to Joanna forever. 

Not very long after William had completed 
his arrangements for the succession, he died un- 
expectedly, while Constance was away from the 
kingdom, at home with her husband. Imme- 
diately a great number of competitors started 
up and claimed the crown. Among them was 



1190.] Richaed at Messina. 123 

Tancred seizing the power. A good pretext for war. 

Tancred. Tancred took the field, and, after a 
desperate contest with his rivals, at length car- 
ried the day. He considered Joanna, the queen 
dowager, as his enemy, and either confiscated 
her estates or allowed others to seize them. 
He then took her with him to Palermo, where, 
as Richard was led to believe, he kept her a 
prisoner. All these things happened a few 
months only before Richard arrived in Messina. 

Palermo, as you will see from any map of 
Sicily, lies near the northwest corner of Sicily, 
and Messina near the northeast. In conse- 
quence of these occurrences, it happened that 
when Richard landed in Sicily he found his 
sister, the wife of the former king of the coun- 
try, a widow and a prisoner, and her estates 
confiscated, while a person whom he considered 
a usurper was on the throne. A better state 
of things to furnish him with a pretext for ag- 
gressions on the country or the people he could 
not possibly have desired. 

As soon as he had landed his troops, he form- 
ed a great encampment for them on the sea- 
shore, outside the town. The place of the en- 
campment was bordered at one extremity by 
the suburbs of the town, and at the other ex- 
tremity was a monastery built on a height. 



124 King Richaud I. [1190. 

Richard's demand. Tancred's response. Reprisals. 



As soon as Richard had established himself 
here, he sent a delegation to Tancred at Paler- 
mo, demanding that he should release Joanna 
and send her to him. Tancred denied that Jo- 
anna had been imprisoned at all, and, at any 
rate, he immediately acceded to her brothers 
demand that she should be sent to him. He 
placed her on board one of his own royal gal- 
leys, and caused her to be conveyed in it, with 
a very honorable escort, to Messina, and there 
delivered up to Richard's care. 

In respect to the dower which Richard had 
demanded that he should restore, Tancred com- 
menced giving some explanations in regard to 
it, but Richard was too impatient to listen to 
them. " We will not wait," said he to his sis- 
ter, "to hear any talking on the subject; we 
will go and take possession of the territory our- 
selves." 

So he embarked a part of his army on board 
some ships and transported them across the 
Straits, and, landing on the Italian shore, he 
seized a castle and a portion of territory sur- 
rounding it. He put a strong garrison in the 
castle, and gave the command of it to Joanna, 
while he went back to Messina to strengthen 
the position of the remainder of his army there. 



1190.] Eichard at Messina. 125 



Fortifying a monastery. Soldiers' troubles. 

He thought that the monastery which flanked 
his encampment on the side farthest from the 
town would make a good fortress if he had pos- 
session of it, and that, if well fortified, it would 
strengthen very much the defenses of his en- 
campment in case Tancred should attempt to 
molest him. So he at once took possession of 
it. He turned the monks out of doors, removed 
all the sacred implements and emblems, and 
turned the buildings into a fortress. He put in 
a garrison of soldiers to guard it, and filled the 
rooms which the monks had been accustomed 
to use for their studies and their prayers with 
stores of arms and ammunition brought in from 
the ships, and with other apparatus of war. 
His object was to be ready to meet Tancred, at 
a moment's warning, if he should attempt to at- 
tack him. 

Soon after this a very serious difficulty broke 
out between the soldiers of the army and the 
people of Messina. There is almost always dif- 
ficulty between the soldiers of an army and the 
people of any town near which the army is en- 
camped. The soldiers, brutal in their passions, 
and standing in awe of none but their own offi- 
cers, are often exceedingly violent and unjust 
in their demeanor toward unarmed and helpless 



126 King Eichard I. [1190. 

The army provoke a riot in Messina. 

citizens, and the citizens, though they usually 
endure very long and very patiently, sometimes 
become aroused to resentment and retaliation at 
last. In this case, parties of Richard's soldiers 
went into Messina, and behaved so outrageous- 
ly toward the inhabitants, and especially toward 
the young women, that the indignation of the 
husbands and fathers was excited to the high- 
est degree. The soldiers were attacked in the 
streets. Several of them were killed. The 
rest fled, and were pursued by the crowd of 
citizens to the gates. Those that escaped went 
to the camp, breathless with excitement and 
burning with rage, and called upon all their fel- 
low-soldiers to join them and revenge their 
wrongs. A great riot was created, and bands 
of furious men, hastily collected together, ad- 
vanced toward the city, brandishing their arms 
and uttering; furious cries, determined to break 
through the gates and kill every body that they 
could find. Richard heard of the danger just 
in time to mount his horse and ride to the gates 
of the city, and there to head off* the soldiers 
and drive them back ; but they were so furious 
that, for a time, they would not hear him, but 
still pressed on. He was obliged to ride in 
among them, and actually beat them back with 



1190.] Richard at Messina. 127 

The intense excitement. The conference broken up. 

his truncheon, before he could compel them to 
give up their design. 

The next day a meeting of the chief officers 
in the two armies, with the chief magistrates 
and some of the principal citizens of Messina, 
was held, to consider what to do to settle this 
dispute, and to prevent future outbreaks of this 
character. But the state of excitement between 
the two parties was too great to be settled yet 
in any amicable manner. While the confer- 
ence was proceeding, a great crowd of people 
from the town collected on a rising ground just 
above the place where the conference was sit- 
ting. They said they only came as spectators. 
Richard alleged, on the other hand, that they 
were preparing to attack the conference. At 
any rate, they were excited and angry, and as- 
sumed a very threatening attitude. Some Nor- 
mans who approached them got into an alterca- 
tion with them, and at length one of the Nor- 
mans was killed, and the rest cried out, " To 
arms !" The conference broke up in confusion. 
Richard rushed to the camp and called out his 
men. He was in a state of fury. Philip did 
all in his power to allay the storm and to pre- 
vent a combat, and when he found that Richard 
would not listen to him, he declared that he had 



128 KiNa Richard I. [1190. 

Richard's uncontrollable passion. The attack on Messina. 

a great mind to join with the Sicilians and 
fight him. This, however, he did not do, but 
contented himself with doing all he could to 
calm the excitement of his angry ally. But 
Richard was not to be controlled. He rushed 
on, at the head of his troops, up the hill to the 
ground where the Sicilians were assembled. 
He attacked them furiously. They were, to 
some extent, armed, but they were not organ- 
ized, and, of course, they could not stand against 
the charge of the soldiers. They fled in con- 
fusion toward the city. Richard and his troops 
followed them, killing as many of them as they 
could in the pursuit. The Sicilians crowded 
into the city and shut the gates. Of course, 
the whole town was now alarmed, and all the 
people that could fight were marshaled on the 
walls and at the gates to defend themselves. 

Richard retired for a brief period till he could 
bring on a larger force, and then made a grand 
attack on the walls. Several of his officers and 
soldiers were killed by darts and arrows from 
the battlements, but at length the walls were 
taken by storm, the gates were opened, and 
Richard marched in at the head of his troops. 
When the people were entirely subdued, Rich- 
ard hung out his flag on a high tower in token 



1190.] Richard at Messina. 129 

Contest between Philip and Richard. A reconciliation. 

that he had taken full and formal possession of 
Tancred's capital. 

Philip remonstrated against this very strong- 
ly, but Richard declared that, now that he had 
got possession of Messina, he would keep pos- 
session until Tancred came to terms with him 
in respect to his sister Joanna. Philip insist- 
ed that he should not do this, but threatened to 
break off the alliance unless Richard would give 
up the town. Finally the matter was compro- 
mised by Richard agreeing that he would take 
down the flag and withdraw from the town him- 
self, and for the present put it under the gov- 
ernment of certain knights that he and Philip 
should jointly appoint for this purpose. 

After the excitement of this affair had a lit- 
tle subsided, Richard and Philip began to con- 
sider how unwise it was for them to quarrel 
with each other, engaged as they were together 
in an enterprise of such magnitude and of so 
much hazard, and one in which it was impossi- 
ble for them to hope to succeed, unless they con- 
tinued united, and so they became reconciled, 
or, at least, pretended to be so, and made new 
vows of eternal friendship and brotherhood. 

Still, notwithstanding these protestations, 
Richard went on lording it over the Sicilians 



130 King Richard I. [1190. 

Fortifying. Richard brings Tancred to terms. 

in the most liigh-handed manner. Some no- 
bles of high rank were so indignant at these pro- 
ceedings that they left the town. Richard im- 
mediately confiscated their estates and convert- 
ed the proceeds to his own use. He proceeded 
to fortify his encampment more and more. The 
monastery which he had forcibly taken from the 
monks he turned into a complete castle. He 
made battlements on the walls, and surrounded 
the whole with a moat. He also built another 
castle on the hills commanding the town. He 
acted, in a word, in all respects as if he consid- 
ered himself master of the country. He did not 
consult Philip at all in respect to any of these 
proceedings, and he paid no attention to the re- 
monstrances that Philip from time to time ad- 
dressed to him. Philip was exceedingly angry, 
but he did not see what he could do. 

Tancred, too, began to be very much alarm- 
ed. He wished to know of Richard what it 
was that he demanded in respect to Joanna. 
Richard said he would consider and let him 
know. In a short time he made known his 
terms as follows. He said that Tancred must 
restore to his sister all the territories which, as 
he alleged, had belonged to her, and also give 
her " a golden chair, a golden table twelve feet 



1190.] Richard at Messina. 131 

What Richard required of Tancred. 

long and a foot and a half broad, two golden 
supports for the same, four silver cups, and four 
silver dishes." He pretended that, by a custom 
of the realm, she was entitled to these things. 
He also demanded for himself a very large con- 
tribution toward the armament and equipment 
for the crusade. It seems that at one period 
during the lifetime of William, Joanna's hus- 
band, her father, King Henry of England, was 
planning a crusade, and that William, by a will 
which he made at that time — so at least Rich- 
ard maintained — had bequeathed a large contri- 
bution toward the necessary means for fitting it 
out. The items were these : 

1. Sixty thousand measures of wheat. 

2. The same quantity of barley. 

3. A fleet of a thousand armed galleys, equip- 
ped and provisioned for two years. 

4. A silken tent large enough to accommo- 
date two hundred knights sitting at a banquet. 

These particulars show on how great a scale 
these military expeditions for conquering the 
Holy Land were conducted in those days, the 
above list being only a complimentary contri- 
bution to one of them by a friend of the leader 
of it. 

Richard now maintained that, though his fa- 



132 King Richard L [1190. 

The final conditions of peace. 

ther Henry had died without going on the cru- 
sade, still he himself was going, and that he, 
being the son, and consequently the represent- 
ative and heir of Henry, was, as such, entitled 
to receive the bequest ; so he called upon Tan- 
cred to pay it. 

After much negotiation, the dispute was set- 
tled by Richard's waiving these claims, and ar- 
ranging the matter on a new and different basis. 
He had a nephew named Arthur. Arthur was 
yet very young, being only about two years old ; 
and as Richard had no children of his own, Ar- 
thur was his presumptive heir. Tancred had 
a daughter, yet an infant. Now it was finally 
proposed that Arthur and this young daughter 
of Tancred should be affianced, and that Tan- 
cred should pay to Richard twenty thousand 
pieces of gold as her dowry ! Richard was, of 
course, to take this money as the guardian and 
trustee of his nephew, and he was to engage 
that, if any thing should occur hereafter to pre- 
vent the marriage from taking place, he would 
refund the money. Tancred was also to pay 
Richard twenty thousand pieces of gold besides, 
in full settlement of all claims in behalf of Jo- 
anna. These terms were finally agreed to on 
both sides. 



1190.] Richard at Messina. 133 

King Richard's league with Tancred. The treaty signed. 

Richard also entered into a league, offensive 
and defensive, with Tancred, agreeing to assist 
him in maintaining his position as King of Sic- 
ily against all his enemies. This is a very im- 
portant circumstance to he remembered, for the 
chief of Tancred's enemies was the Emperor 
Henry of Germany, the prince who had married 
Constance, as has been already related. Hen- 
ry's father had died, and he had become Empe- 
ror of Germany himself, and he now claimed 
Sicily as the inheritance of Constance his wife, 
according to the will of King William, Joanna's 
husband. Tancred, he maintained, was a 
usurper, and, of course, now Richard, by his 
league, offensive and defensive, with Tancred, 
made himself Henry's enemy. This led him 
into serious difficulty with Henry at a subse- 
quent period, as we shall by-and-by see. 

The treaty between Richard and Tancred was 
drawn up in due form and duly executed, and 
it was sent for safe keeping to Rome, and there 
deposited with the Pope. Tancred paid Rich- 
ard the money, and he immediately began to . 
squander it in the most lavish and extravagant 
manner. He expended the infant princess's 
dower, which he held in trust for Arthur, as 
freely as he did the other money. Indeed, this 



134 King Kichard I. [1190. 

Royal trustees are not always faithful. 

was a very common way, in those days, for great 
kings to raise money. If they had a young son 
or heir, no matter how young he was, they 
would contract to give him in marriage to the 
little daughter of some other potentate on con- 
dition of receiving some town, or castle, or prov- 
ince, or large sum of money as dower. The 
idea was, of course, that they were to take this 
dower in charge for the young prince, to keep 
it for him until he should become old enough 
to be actually married, but in reality they would 
take possession of the property themselves, and 
convert it at once to their own use. 

Richard himself had been affianced in this 
way in his infancy to Alice, the daughter of the 
then reigning King of France, and the sister of 
Philip, and his father, King Henry the Second, 
had received and appropriated the dowry. 

Indeed, in this case, both the sums of money 
that Richard received from Tancred were paid 
to Richard in trust, or, at least, ought to have 
been so regarded, the one amount being for Ar- 
thur, and the other for Joanna. Richard him- 
self, in his own name, had no claims on Tan- 
cred whatever ; but as soon as the money came 
into his hands, he began to expend it in the 
most profuse and lavish manner. He adopted 



1190.] Kichard at Messina. 135 

Extravagance of Richard's court. Spring approaching. 

a very extravagant and ostentatious style of 
living. He made costly presents to the bar- 
ons, and knights, and officers of the armies, in- 
cluding the French army as well as his own, 
and gave them most magnificent entertainments. 
Philip thought that he did this to secure popu- 
larity, and that the presents which he made to 
the French knights and nobles were designed to 
entice them away from their allegiance and fidel- 
ity to him, their lawful sovereign. At Christ- 
mas he gave a splendid entertainment, to which 
he invited every person of the rank of a knight 
or a gentleman in both armies, and at the close 
of the feast he made a donation in money to 
each of the guests, the sum being different in 
different cases, according to the rank and sta- 
tion of the person who received it. 

The king, having thus at last settled his quar- 
rels and established himself in something like 
peace in Sicily, began to turn his attention to- 
ward the preparations for the spring. Of 
course, his intention was, as soon as the spring 
should open, to set sail with his fleet and army, 
and proceed toward the Holy Land. He now 
caused all his ships to be examined with a view 
to ascertain what repairs they needed. Some 
had been injured by the storms which they had 



136 King Eichaed I. [1190. 

Repairing the fleet. Battering-rams. Modern ordnance. 

encountered on the way from Marseilles or by 
accidents of the sea. Others had become worm- 
eaten and leaky by lying in port. Richard 
caused them all to be put thoroughly in repair. 
He also caused a number of battering engines 
to be constructed of timber which his men 
hauled from the forests around the base of 
Mount iEtna. These engines were for assail- 
ing the walls of the towns and fortresses in the 
Holy Land. 

In modern times walls are always attacked 
with mortars and cannon. The ordnance of 
the present day will throw shot and shells of 
prodigious weight two or three miles, and these 
tremendous missiles strike against the walls of 
a fortress with such force as in a short time to 
batter them down, no matter how strong and 
thick they may be. But in those days gun- 
powder was not in use, and the principal means 
of breaking down a wall was by the battering- 
ram, which consisted of a heavy beam of wood, 
hung by a rope or chain from a massive frame, 
and then swung against the gate or wall which 
it was intended to break through. In the en- 
graving you see such a ram suspended from 
the frame, with men at work below, impelling 
it against a gateway. 




THE IiATTEBTNG-KAM. 



1190.] Richard at Messina. 139 

The methods of war in ancient times. 

Sometimes these battering-rams were very 
large and heavy, and the men drew them back 
and forth, in striking the wall with them, by 
means of ropes. There are accounts of some 
battering-rams which weighed forty or fifty 
tons, and required fifteen hundred men to work 
them. 

The men, of course, were very much exposed 
while engaged in this operation, for the people 
whom they were besieging would gather on the 
walls above, and shoot spears, darts, and ar- 
rows at them, and throw down stones and other 
missiles, as you see in the engraving. 

Then, besides the battering-ram, which, 
though very efficient against walls, was of no 
service against men, there were other engines 




THE UALLISTA 



140 



King Eichard I. 



[1190. 



Catapultas. 



Maginalls. 



made in those days which were designed to 
throw stones or monstrous darts. These last 
were, of course, designed to operate against 
bodies of men. They were made in various 
forms, and were called catapultas, ballistas, mag- 




/M^NIAWj] 



THE CA.TAPULTA. 



inalls, and by other such names. The force 
with which they operated consisted of springs 
made by elastic bars of wood, twisted ropes, 
and other such contrivances. 

Some were for throwing stones, others for 
monstrous darts. Of course, these engines re- 
quired for their construction heavy frames of 
sound timber. Richard did not expect to find 
such timber in the Holy Land, nor did he wish 



1190.] Richard at Messina. 141 

The religious observances of tyrants. 

to consume the time after he should arrive in 
making them ; so he employed the winter in 
constructing a great number of these engines, 
and in packing them, in parts, on board his 
galleys. 

Eichard performed a great religious ceremo- 
ny, too, while he was at Sicily this winter, as a 
part of the preparation which he deemed it nec- 
essary to make for the campaign. It is a re- 
markable fact that every great military freeboot- 
er that has organized an armed gang of men to 
go forth, and rob and murder his fellow-men, in 
any age of the world, has considered some great 
religious performance necessary at the outset of 
the work, to prepare the minds of his soldiers 
for it, and to give them the necessary resolution 
and confidence in it. It was so with Alexan- 
der. It was so with Xerxes and with Darius. 
It was so with Pyrrhus. It is so substantially 
at the present day, when, in all wars, each side 
makes itself the champion of heaven in the 
contest, and causes Te Deums to be chanted in 
their respective churches, now on this side and 
now on that, in pretended gratitude to God for 
their alternate victories. 

Richard called a grand convention of all the 
prelates and monks that were with his army, 



142 King Richard I. [1190. 

Richard's penitence and penance. Was lie sincere ? 

and performed a solemn act of worship. A part 
of the performance consisted of his kneeling per- 
sonally before the priests, confessing his sins 
and the wicked life that lie had led, and mak- 
ing very fervent promises to sin no more, and 
then, after submitting to the penances which 
they enjoined upon him, receiving from them 
pardon and absolution. After the enactment 
of this solemnity, the soldiers felt far more safe 
and strong in going forth to the work which lay 
before them in the Holy Land than before. 

Nor is it certain that in this act Richard was 
wholly hypocritical and insincere. The human 
heart is a mansion of many chambers, and a re- 
ligious sentiment, in no small degree conscien- 
tious and honest, though hollow and mistaken, 
may have strong possession of some of them, 
while others are filled to overflowing with the 
dear and besetting sins, whatever they are, by 
which the general conduct of the man is con- 
trolled. 



/ 



1190.] Berengaria. 143 



Richard's betrothal to Berengaria. 



Chapter IX. 
Berengaria. 

WHILE Richard was in the kingdom of 
Sicily during this memorable winter, he 
made a new contract of marriage. The lady 
was a Spanish princess named Berengaria. 
The circumstances of this betrothment were 
somewhat extraordinary. 

The reader will recollect that he had been 
betrothed in his earliest youth to Alice, an in- 
fant princess of France. His father had thrown 
him in, as it were, as a sort of makeweight, in 
arranging some compromise with the King of 
France for the settlement of a quarrel, and also 
to obtain the dower of the young princess for 
his own use. This dower consisted of various 
castles and estates, which were immediately put 
into the hands of Henry, Richard's father, and 
which he continued to hold as long as he lived, 
using and enjoying the rents and revenues from 
them as his own property. When Richard 
grew old enough to claim his bride, Henry, un- 
der whose custody and charge she had been 



144 King Eichard I. [1190. 

The obstacles which prevented the marriage of Richard and Alice. 

placed, would not give her up to him ; and long 
and serious quarrels arose between the father 
and the son on this account, as has already been 
related in this volume. The most obvious rea- 
son for which Henry might be supposed unwil- 
ling to give up Alice to her affianced husband, 
when he became old enough to be married to 
her, was, that he wished to retain longer the 
use of the castles and estates that constituted 
her dowry. But, in addition to this, it was sur- 
mised by many that he had actually fallen in 
love with her himself, and that he was determ- 
ined that Richard should not have her at all. 
Richard himself believed, or pretended to be- 
lieve, that this was the case. He was conse- 
quently very angry, and he justified himself in 
the wars and rebellions that he raised against 
his lather during the lifetime of the king by 
this great wrong which he alleged that his fa- 
ther had done him. On the other hand, many 
persons supposed that Richard did not really 
wish to marry Alice, and that he only made the 
fact of his father's withholding her from him a 
pretext for his unnatural hostility, the real ends 
and aims of which were objects altogether dif- 
ferent. 

However this may be, when Henry died, and 



1190.] Berengaria. 145 

The first acquaintance of Richard and the Princess Berengaria. 

there was no longer any thing in the way of his 
marriage, he showed no desire to consummate 
it. Alice's father, too, had died, and Philip, the 
present King of France, and Richard's ally, was 
her brother. Philip called upon Richard from 
time to time to complete the marriage, but Rich- 
ard found various pretexts for postponing it, and 
thus the matter stood when the expedition for 
the Holy Land set sail from Marseilles. 

The next reason why Richard did not now 
wish to carry his marriage with Alice into effect 
was that, in the mean time, while his father had 
been withholding Alice from him, he had seen 
and fallen in love with another lady, the Prin- 
cess Berengaria. Richard first saw Berengaria 
several years before, at a time when he was with 
his mother in Aquitaine, during the life of his 
father. The first time that he saw her was at 
a grand tournament which was celebrated in her 
native city in Spain, and which Richard went 
to attend. The families had been well acquaint- 
ed with each other before, though, until the tour- 
nament, Richard had never seen Berengaria. 
Richard had, however, known one of her broth- 
ers from his boyhood, and they had always been 
very great friends. The father of Berengaria, 
too, Sancho the Wise, King ofJSTavarre, had al- 
K 



146 King Richard I. [1190. 

The fame of Berengaria. Her accomplishments. 

ways been a warm friend of Eleanora, Richard's 
mother, and in the course of the difficulties and 
quarrels that took place between her and her 
husband, as related in the early chapters of this 
volume, he had rendered her very valuable serv- 
ices. Still, Richard never saw Berengaria until 
she had grown up to womanhood. 

He, however, felt a strong desire to see her, 
for she was quite celebrated for her beauty and 
her accomplishments. The accomplishments in 
which she excelled were chiefly music and poet- 
ry. Richard himself was greatly interested in 
these arts, especially in the songs of the Trou- 
badours, whose performances always formed a 
very important part of the entertainment at the 
feasts and tournaments, and other great public 
celebrations of those days. 

When Richard came to see Berengaria, he 
fell deeply in love with her. But he could not 
seek her hand in marriage on account of his 
engagement with Alice. To have given up 
Alice, and to have entered instead into an en- 
gagement with her, would have involved both 
him and his mother, and all the family of Beren- 
garia too, in a fierce quarrel with the King of 
France, the father of Alice, and also with his 
own father. These were too serious conse- 



1190.] Berengaria. 147 

Eleanora sent to King Sancho to ask his daughter in marriage. 

quences for him to brave while he was still only 
a prince, and nominally under his father's au- 
thority. So he did nothing openly, though a 
strong secret attachment sprang up between him 
and Berengaria, and all desire ever to make Al- 
ice his wife gradually disappeared. 

At length, when his father died, and Richard 
became King of England, he felt at once that 
the power was now in his own hands, and that 
he would do as he liked in respect to his mar- 
riage. Alice's father, too, had died, and her 
brother Philip was now king, and he was not 
likely to feel so strong an interest in resenting 
any supposed slight to his sister as her father 
would have been. Richard determined, there- 
fore, to give up Alice altogether, and ask Beren- 
garia to be his wife. So, while he was engaged 
in England in making his preparations for the 
crusade, and when he was nearly ready to set 
out, he sent his mother, Eleanora, to Navarre to 
ask Berengaria in marriage of her father, King 
Sancho. He did not, however, give Philip any 
notice of this change in his plans, not wishing 
to embarrass the alliance that he and Philip 
were forming with any unnecessary difficulties 
which might interfere with the success of it, 
and retard the preparations for the crusade. 



148 King Richard I. [1190. 

Berengaria's acceptance. The expedition to meet Richard. 

So, while his mother had gone to Spain to se- 
cure Berengaria for him as his wife, he himself, 
in England and Normandy, went on with his 
preparations for the crusade in connection with 
Philip, just as if the original engagement with 
Alice was going regularly on. 

Eleanora was very successful in her mission. 
Sancho, Berengaria's father, was very much 
pleased with so magnificent an offer as that of 
the hand of Richard, Duke of Normandy and 
King of England, for his daughter. Berengaria 
herself made no objection. Eleanora said that 
her son had not been able to come himself and 
claim his bride, on account of the necessity that 
he was under of accompanying his army to the 
East, but she said that he would stop at Mes- 
sina, and she proposed that Berengaria should 
put herself under her protection, and go and 
join him there. 

Berengaria was a lady of an ardent and ro- 
mantic temperament, and nothing could please 
her better than such a proposal as this. She 
very readily acceded to it, and her lather was 
very willing to intrust her to the charge of El- 
eanora. So the two ladies, with a proper train 
of barons, knights, and other attendants, set out 
together. They crossed the Pyrenees into 



1190.] Berengaria. 149 



Berengaria at Brindisi with Joanna. 



France, and then, after traversing France, they 
passed over the Alps into Italy. Thence they 
continued their journey down the Italian coast 
by land, as Richard had done by water, until 
at last they arrived at a place called Brindisi, 
which is on the coast of Italy, not far from Mes- 
sina. Here they halted, and sent word to Rich- 
ard to inform him of their arrival. 

Eleanora thought that Berengaria could not 
go any farther with propriety, for her engage- 
ment with Richard was not yet made public. 
Indeed, the betrothal of Richard with Alice still 
remained nominally in force, and a serious dif- 
ficulty was to be apprehended with Philip so 
soon as the new plans which Richard had form- 
ed should be announced to him. 

Eleanora said that she could not remain long- 
in Italy, but must return to Normandy very 
soon, without waiting for Richard to prepare the 
way for receiving his bride. So she left Beren- 
garia under the charge of Joanna,, who, being 
her own — that is, Eleanora's — daughter, was a 
very proper person to be the young lady's pro- 
tector. Joanna and Berengaria immediately 
conceived a strong attachment for each other, 
and they lived together in a very happy man- 
ner. Joanna was glad to have for a companion 



150 King Richard I. [1190. 

The friendship between Joanna and Berengaria. 

so charming a young lady, and one of so high 
a rank, and Berengaria, on the other hand, was 
much pleased to be placed under the charge of 
so kind a protector. Joanna, too, having long- 
lived in Sicily, could give Berengaria a great 
deal of interesting intelligence about the coun- 
try and the people, and could answer all the 
thousand questions which she asked about what 
she heard and saw in the new world, as it were, 
into which she had been ushered. 

The two ladies lived, of course, in very close 
seclusion, but they lived so lovingly together 
that one of the writers of the day, in a ballad 
that he wrote, compared them to two birds in a 
cage. Speaking of Eleanora, he says, in the 
quaint old English of the day, 

" She beleft Berengere 
At Richard's costage. 
Queen Joanne held her dear ; 
They lived as doves in a cage." 

The arrival of Berengaria at Brindisi took 
place in the spring of the year, when the time 
was drawing nigh for the fleets and armaments 
to sail for the East. As yet, Philip knew noth- 
ing of Richard's plans in respect to this new 
marriage, but the time had now arrived when 
Richard perceived that they could no longer be 



1190.] Berengaria. 151 

Tancred receives a letter from Philip. Treachery. 

concealed. Philip entertained suspicions that 
something wrong was going on, though he did 
not know exactly what. His suspicions made 
him watchful and jealous, and at last they led 
to a curious train of circumstances, which 
brought matters to a crisis very suddenly. 

It seems that at one time, when Richard was 
paying a visit to Tancred, the King of Sicily, 
Tancred showed him a letter which he said he 
had received from the French king. In this let- 
ter, Philip — if, indeed, Philip really wrote it — 
endeavored to excite Tancred's enmity against 
Richard. It was just after the treaty between 
Tancred and Richard had been formed, as re- 
lated in the last chapter. The letter said that 
Richard was a treacherous man, in whom no re- 
liance could be placed ; that he had no inten- 
tion of keeping the treaty that he had made, but 
was laying a scheme for attacking Tancred in 
his Sicilian dominions ; and, finally, it closed 
with an offer on the part of the writer to assist 
Tancred in driving Richard and all his follow- 
ers out of the island. 

When Richard read this letter, he was at 
first in a dreadful rage, and he broke out into 
an explosion of the most violent, profane, and 
passionate language that can be conceived* 



152 King Richard I. [1190. 



Philip's letter to Tancred. 



Richard's opinion of it. 




the lkttet:. 



Presently he looked at the letter again, and on 
reperusing it, and carefully considering its con- 
tents, he declared that he did not believe that 
Philip ever wrote it, It was a stratagem of 
Tancred's, he thought, designed to promote a 
quarrel between Richard and his ally. Tan- 
cred assured him that Philip did write the let- 
ter, or, at least, that it was brought to him as 



1190.] Berengaria. 153 

The etiquette of dueling. Richard charges the letter upon Philip. 

from Philip by the Duke of Burgundy, one of 
his principal officers. 

" You may ask the Duke of Burgundy," said 
he, " and if he denies it, I will challenge him to 
a duel through one of my barons." 

It was necessary that the parties to a duel, 
in those days, should be of equal rank, so that, 
if a king had a quarrel with a nobleman of an- 
other nation, he could only send one of his own 
noblemen of the same rank to be his represent- 
ative in the combat. But this proposal of send- 
ing another man to risk his life in maintaining 
the cause of his king on a question of veracity, 
in which the person so sent had no interest 
whatever, illustrates very curiously the ideas 
of those chivalrous times. 

Kichard did not go to the Duke of Burgun- 
dy, but, taking the letter which Tancred had 
shown him, he waited until he found a good op- 
portunity, and then showed it to Philip. The 
two kings often fell into altercations and dis- 
putes in their interviews with each other, and it 
was in one of these that Richard produced the 
letter, offering it by way of recrimination to 
some charges or accusations which Philip was 
making against him. Philip denied having writ- 
ten the letter. It was a forgery, he said, and 



154 


King Richard I. [1190. 


Philip's reply. 


Richard's declaration. 



he believed that Richard himself was the author 
of it. 

4 'You are trying every way you can," said 
he, " to find pretexts for quarreling with me, 
and this is one of your devices. I know what 
you are aiming at : you wish to quarrel with 
me so as to find some excuse for breaking off 
your marriage with my sister, whom you are 
bound by a most solemn oath to marry. But 
of this you may be sure, that if you abandon 
her and take any other wife, you will find me, 
as long as you live, your most determined and 
mortal enemy." 

This declaration aroused Richard's temper, 
and brought the affair at once to a crisis. 
Richard declared to Philip that he never would 
marry his sister. 

"My father," said he, "kept her from me 
for many years because he loved her himself, 
and she returned his love, and now I will nev- 
er have any thing to do with her. I am ready 
to prove to you the truth of what I say." 

So Richard brought forward what he called 
the proofs of the very intimate relations which 
had subsisted between Alice and his father. 
Whether there was any thing genuine or con- 
clusive in these proofs is not known. At all 



1190.] Berengaria. 155 

Richard and Philip compromise their quarrel. 

events, they made a very deep and painful im- 
pression on Philip. The disclosure was, as one 
of the writers of those times says, "like a nail 
driven directly through his heart." 

After a while, the two kings concluded to 
settle the difficulty by a sort of compromise. 
Philip agreed to give up all claims on the part 
of Alice to Richard in consideration of a sum 
of money which Richard was to pay. Richard 
was to pay two thousand marks* a year for fi>e 
years, and was on that condition to be allowed 
to marry any one he chose. He was also to 
restore to Philip the fortresses and estates which 
had been conveyed to his father as Alice's dow- 
ry at the time of her betrothment to Richard 
in her infancy. 

This agreement, being thus made, was con- 
firmed by a great profusion of oaths, sworn with 
all solemnity, and the affair was considered as 
settled. 

Still, Richard seems to have been a little dis- 
inclined to bring out Berengaria at once from 
her retreat, and let Philip know suddenly how 
far his arrangements for marrying another lady 
had gone ; so he concluded to wait, before pub- 
licly announcing his intended marriage, until 
* The mark is about three dollars. 



156 King Richakd I. [1190. 

Re-embarkation. Preparations for the marriage. 

Philip should have sailed for the East. Philip 
was now, indeed, nearly ready to go ; his fleet 
and his armament, being smaller than Richard's, 
could be dispatched earlier; so Richard de- 
voted himself very earnestly to the work of fa- 
cilitating and hastening his ally's departure, de- 
termining that immediately afterward he would 
bring forward his bride and celebrate his mar- 
riage. 

It is not, however, certain that he kept his 
intended marriage with Berengaria an absolute 
secret from Philip. There would be no longer 
any special necessity for this after the treaty 
that had been made. But, notwithstanding this 
agreement, it is not to be supposed that the new 
marriage would be a very agreeable subject for 
Philip to contemplate, or that it would be other- 
wise than very awkward for him to be present 
on the occasion of the celebration of it; so 
Richard decided that, on all accounts, it was 
best to postpone the ceremony until after Philip 
had gone. 

Philip sailed the very last of March. Rich- 
ard selected from his fleet a few of his most 
splendid galleys, and with these, filled with a 
chosen company of knights and barons, he ac- 
companied Philip as he left the harbor, and 



1190.] Berengaria. 157 



Richard escorting Philip. Why the wedding was postponed. 

sailed with him down the Straits of Messina, 
with trumpets sounding, and flags and banners 
waving in the air. As soon as Philip's fleet 
reached the open sea, Richard took leave, and 
set out with his galleys on his return ; but, in- 
stead of going back to Messina, he made the best 
of his way to the port in Italy where Berengaria 
and Joanna were lodging, a-nd there took the la- 
dies, who were all ready, expecting him, and em- 
barking them on board a very elegantly adorned 
galley which he had prepared for them, he con- 
ducted them to Messina. 

Richard would now probably have been im- 
mediately married, but it was in the season of 
Lent, and, according to the ideas of those times, 
it would be in some sense a desecration of that 
holy season of fasting to celebrate any such 
joyous ceremony as a wedding in it ; and it 
would not do very well to postpone the sailing 
of the fleet until after the season of Lent should 
have expired, for the time had already fully ar- 
rived when it ought to sail, and Philip, with 
his division of the allied force, had already gone; 
so he concluded to put off his marriage till they 
should reach the next place at which the expe- 
dition should land. 

Berengaria consented to this, and it was ar- 



158 King Richard I. [1190. 

Richard puts Joanna and Berengaria in charge of Stephen. 

ranged that she was to accompany the expedi- 
tion when it should sail, and that at the next 
place of landing, which it was expected would 
be the island of Rhodes, the marriage ceremony 
should be performed. 

As it was not considered quite proper, how- 
ever, under these circumstances, that the prin- 
cess should sail in the same ship with Richard, 
a very strong and excellent ship was provided 
for her special use, and that of Joanna who was 
to accompany her, and it was arranged that she 
should sail from the port just before the main 
body of the fleet were ready to commence the 
voyage. The ship in which the ladies and their 
suite were conveyed was placed under the com- 
mand of a brave and faithful knight named Ste- 
phen of Turnham, and the two princesses were 
committed to his special charge. 

But, although Richard's regard for the sacred 
season of Lent would not allow of his celebra- 
ting the marriage, he made a grand celebration 
in honor of his betrothment to Berengaria be- 
fore he sailed. At this celebration he insti- 
tuted an order of twenty-four knights. These 
knights bound themselves in a fraternity with 
the king, and took a solemn oath that they 
would scale the walls of Acre when they reach- 



1190.] Berengaria. 159 

The vow to conquer Acre. Richard's present to Tancied. 

ed the Holy Land. Acre was one of the strong- 
est and most important fortresses in that coun- 
try, and one which they were intending first to 
attack. 

Also, before he went away, Eichard made 
King Tancred a farewell present of a very val- 
uable antique sword, which had been found, he 
said, by his father in the tomb of a famous old 
English knight who had lived some centuries 
before. 



160 King Richard I. [1190. 

The expedition is at last ready to sail from Sici'y. 



Chapter X. 
The Campaign in Cyprus. 

THE time at length fully arrived for the de- 
parture of the English fleet from- Sicily 
for the purpose of continuing the voyage to the 
Holy Land. Besides the delay which had been 
occasioned to Richard by circumstances con- 
nected with his marriage, he had waited also a 
short time for some store-ships to arrive from 
England with ammunition and supplies. When 
the store-ships at length came, the day for the 
sailing was immediately appointed, the tents 
were struck, the encampment abandoned, and 
the troops embarked on board the ships of the 
fleet. 

The Sicilians were all greatly excited, as the 
sailing of the fleet drew nigh, with anticipations 
of the splendor of the spectacle. The harbor 
was rilled with ships of every form and size, 
and the movements connected with the embark- 
ation of the troops on board of them, the strik- 
ing of the tents, the packing up of furniture and 
goods, the hurrying of men to and fro, the crowd- 



1190.] Campaign in Cyprus. 161 

The grand spectacle of the emharkation at Messina. 

ing at the landings, the rapid transit of boats 
"back and forth between the ships and the shore, 
and all the other scenes and incidents usually 
attendant on the embarkation of a great army, 
occupied the attention of the people of the coun- 
try, and filled them with excitement and pleas- 
ure. It is highly probable, too, that their pleas- 
ure was increased by the prospect that they 
were soon to be relieved from the presence of 
such troublesome and unmanageable visitors. 

Never was a finer spectacle witnessed than 
that which was displayed by the sailing of the 
fleet, when the day for the departure of it at 
length arrived. The squadron consisted of 
nearly two hundred vessels in all. There were 
thirteen great ships, corresponding to what are 
called ships of the line of modern times. Then 
there were over fifty galleys. These were con- 
structed so as to be propelled either by oars or 
by sails. Of course, when the wind was favor- 
able, the sails would be used ; but in case of 
calms, or of adverse winds blowing off from the 
land when the vessels were entering port, or of 
currents drifting them into danger, then the 
oars could be brought into requisition. In ad- 
dition to these ships and galleys, there were 
about a hundred vessels used as transports for 
L 



162 King Richard I. [1190. 

The order of sailing. Trenc-le-mer. 

the conveyance of provisions, stores, tents, and 
tent equipage, ammunition of all kinds, includ- 
ing the frames of the military engines which 
Richard had caused to be constructed in Sicily, 
and all the other supplies required for the use 
of a great army. Besides these there were a 
great many other smaller vessels, which were 
used as tenders, lighters, and for other such pur- 
poses, making a total number of nearly two 
hundred. In the order of sailing, the trans- 
ports followed the ships and galleys, which 
were more properly the ships of war, and which 
led the van, in order the better to meet any dan- 
ger which might appear, and the more effectu- 
ally to protect the convoy from it. 

Richard sailed at the head of his fleet in a 
splendid galley, which -was appropriated to his 
special use. The name of it was the Sea Cut- 
ter.* There was a huge lantern hoisted in the 
stern of Richard's galley, in order that the rest 
of the fleet could see and follow her in the night. 

The day of sailing was very fine, and the 
spectacle, witnessed by the Sicilians on shore, 
who watched the progress of it from every pro- 
jecting point and headland as it moved majes- 
tically out of the harbor, was extremely grand. 
* Trenc-le-mer / literally, Cut the sea. 



1190.] Campaign in Cypeus. 165 

The storm. Navigation in the twelfth century. 

For some time the voyage went on very pros- 
perously, but at length the sky gradually became 
overcast, and the wind began to blow, and final- 
ly a great storm came on before the ships had 
time to seek any shelter. In those days there 
was no mariner's compass, and of course, in a 
storm, when the sun and stars were concealed, 
there was nothing to be - done but for the ship 
to grope her way through the haze and rain for 
any land which might be near. The violence 
of the wind and the raging of the sea was in this 
case so great that the fleet was soon dispersed, 
and the vessels were driven northward and east- 
ward toward certain islands which lie in that 
part of the Mediterranean, off the coasts of Asia 
Minor. The three principal of these islands, as 
you will see by the opposite map, are Candia, 
Rhodes, and Cyprus, Cyprus lying farther to- 
ward the east. 

The ships came very near being wrecked on 
the coast of Crete, but they escaped and were 
driven onward over the sea, until at length a 
large portion of them found refuge at Rhodes. 
Others were driven on toward Cyprus. Rich- 
ard's galley was among those that found refuge 
at Rhodes ; but, unfortunately, the one in which 
Berengaria and Joanna were borne did not sue- 



166 King Eichard I. [1190. 

Limesol in Cyprus. The wrecked ships. The wreckers. 

ceed in making a port there, but was swept on- 
ward by the gale, and, in company with one or 
two others, was driven to the mouth of the har- 
bor of Limesol, which is the principal port of 
Cyprus, and is situated on the south side of 
the island. The galley in which the queen and 
the princess were embarked, being probably of 
superior construction to the others, and better 
manned, succeeded in weathering the point and 
getting round into the harbor, but two or three 
other galleys which were with them struck and 
were wrecked. One of these ships was a very 
important one. It contained the chancellor who 
bore Richard's great seal, besides a number of 
other knights and crusaders of high rank, and 
many valuable goods. The seal was an object 
of great value. Every king had his own seal, 
which was used to authenticate his public acts. 
The one which belonged to Eichard is repre- 
sented in the following engraving. 

As soon as the news of these wrecks spread 
into the island, the people came down in great 
numbers, and took possession of every thing of 
value which was cast upon the shore as proper- 
ty forfeited to the king of the country. The 
name of this king was Isaac Comnenus. 

He claimed that all wrecks cast upon his 



1190.] Campaign in Cyprus. 



167 



King Richard's seal. 



Isaac Comncnn 



Law and justice. 




KING RICIIAR1) S 8KAL. 



shores were his property. That was the law 
of the land ; it was, in fact, the law of a great 
many countries in those days, especially of such 
as had maritime coasts bordering on navigable 
waters that were specially exposed to storms. 

Thus, in seizing the wreck of Richard's ves- 
sels, King Isaac had the law on his side, and 
all those who, in their theory of government, 
hold it as a principle that law is the foundation 
of property, and that what the law makes right 
is right, must admit that he had justice on his 



168 King Richard I. [1190. 

Law is not the creator, but the protector of property. 

side too. For my part, it seems clear that the 
right of property is anterior to all law, and in- 
dependent of it. I think that the province of 
law is not to create property, but to protect it, 
and that it may, instead of protecting it, become 
the greatest violator of it. This law providing 
for the confiscation of property cast in wrecks 
upon a shore, and its forfeiture to the sovereign 
of the territory, is one of the most striking in- 
stances of aggression made by law on the nat- 
ural and indefeasible rights of man. 

In regard to the galley which contained the 
queens, that having escaped shipwreck, and 
having safely anchored in the harbor, the king 
had no pretext for molesting it in any way. 
He learned by some means that Queen Joanna 
was on board the galley ; so he sent two boats 
down with a messenger, to inquire whether her 
majesty would be pleased to land. 

Stephen of Turnham, the knight who had 
command of the queen's galley, thought it not 
safe to go on shore, for by doing so Joanna and 
Berengaria would put themselves entirely in 
King Isaac's power ; and though it was true that 
Isaac and the people of Cyprus over whom he 
ruled were Christians, yet they were of the 
Greek Church, while Richard and the English 



1190.] Campaign in Cypkus. 169 

Joanna's inquiries for her brother. An alarm. 

were Roman, and these two churches were al- 
most as hostile to each other as the Christians 
and the Turks. Stephen, however, communi- 
cated the message from Isaac to Joanna, and 
asked her majesty's pleasure thereupon. She 
sent back word to the messengers that she did 
not wish to land. She had only come into the 
harbor, she said, to see if she could learn any 
tidings of her brother ; she had been separated 
from him by a great storm at sea, which had 
broken up and dispersed the fleet, and she 
wished to know whether any thing had been 
seen of him, or of any of his vessels, from the 
shores of that island. 

The messengers replied that they did not 
know any thing about it, and so the boats re- 
turned back to the town. Soon after this the 
company on board the galley saw some armed 
vessels coming down the harbor toward them. 
They were alarmed at this sight, and immedi- 
ately got every thing ready for setting off at a 
moment's notice to withdraw from the harbor. 
It turned out that the king himself was on board 
one of the galleys that was coming down, and 
this vessel was allowed to come near enough 
for the king to communicate with the people on 
board Joanna's galley. After some ordinary 



170 King Richard I. [1190. 



Richard's vessel appears. 



questions had been asked and answered, the 
king, observing that a lady of high rank was 
standing on the deck with Joanna, asked who 
it was. They answered that it was the Prin- 
cess of Navarre, who was going to be married 
to Richard. In the reply which the king made 
to this intelligence Stephen of Turnham thought 
he saw sucli indications of hostility that he 
deemed it most prudent to retire ; so the anchor 
was raised, and the order was given to the oars- 
men, who had already been stationed at their 
oars, to "give way," and the oarsmen pulled 
vigorously at the oars. The galley was imme- 
diately taken out into the offing. The King of 
Cyprus did not pursue her; so she anchored 
there quietly, the storm having now nearly sub- 
sided. Stephen resolved to wait there for a 
time, hoping that in some way or other he 
might soon receive intelligence from Richard. 

Nor was he disappointed. Richard, whose 
galley, together with the principal portion of 
the fleet, had been driven farther to the east- 
ward, had found refuge at Rhodes, and he set 
off, as soon as the storm abated, in pursuit of 
the missing vessels. He took with him a suf- 
ficient force to render to the vessels, if he should 
find them, such assistance or protection as might 



1190.] Campaign in Cypkus. 171 

Richard's indignation on meeting Joanna's vessel. 

be necessary. At length he reached Cyprus, 
and, on entering the bay, there he beheld the 
galley of Joanna and Berengaria riding safely 
at anchor in the offing. The sea had not yet 
gone down, and the vessel was rolling and toss- 
ing on the waves in a fearful manner. Rich- 
ard was greatly enraged at beholding this spec- 
tacle, for he at once inferred, by seeing the ves- 
sel in this uncomfortable situation outside the 
harbor, that some difficulty with the authorities 
had occurred which prevented her seeking ref- 
uge and protection within. Accordingly, as 
soon as he came near, he leaped into a boat, 
although burdened as he was with heavy armor 
of steel, which was a difficult and somewhat 
dangerous operation, and ordered himself to be 
rowed immediately on board. 

When he arrived, after the first greetings 
were over, he was informed by Stephen that 
three of the vessels of his fleet had been wreck- 
ed on the coast ; that Isaac, the king, had seized 
them as his lawful prize ; and that, at that very 
time, men that he had sent for this purpose 
were plundering the wrecks. Stephen also said 
that he had at first gone into the harbor with 
his galley, but that the indications of an un- 
friendly feeling on the part of the king were so 



172 King Eichaed I. [1190. 

Richard's contest with King Isaac Comnenus. 

decided that lie did not dare to stay, and he had 
been compelled to come out into the offing. 

On hearing these things Richard was great- 
ly enraged. He sent a messenger on shore to 
the king to demand peremptorily that he should 
at once leave off plundering the wrecks of the 
English ships, and that he should deliver up to 
Richard again all the goods that had already 
been taken. To this demand Isaac replied that 
whatever goods the sea cast upon the shores of 
his island were his property, according to the 
law of the land, and that he should take them 
without asking leave of any body. 

When Richard heard this answer, he was 
rather pleased than displeased with it, for it 
gave him, what he always wanted wherever he 
went, a pretext for quarreling. He said that 
the goods which Isaac obtained in that way 
he would find would cost him pretty dear, and 
he immediately prepared for war. 

In this transaction there is no question that 
the King of Cyprus, though wholly wrong, and 
guilty of a real and inexcusable violation of the 
rights of property, had yet the law on his side. 
It was one of those cases, of which innumera- 
ble examples have existed in all ages of the 
world, where an act which is virtually the rob- 



1190.] Campaign in Cyprus. 173 



The history of the law of wrecks. 



bing of one man by another is authorized by 
law, and is protected by legal sanctions. This 
rule — confiscating property wrecked — was the 
general law of Europe at this time, and Rich- 
ard, of all men, might have considered himself 
estopped from objecting to it by the fact that it 
was the law in England as well as every where 
else. By the ancient common law of England, 
all wrecks of every kind became the property 
of the king. The severity of the rule had been 
slightly mitigated a few reigns before Richard's 
day by a statute which declared that if any liv- 
ing thing escaped from the wreck, even were it 
so much as a dog or a cat, that circumstance 
saved the property from confiscation, and pre- 
served the claim of the owner to it. With this 
modification, the law stood in England until a 
very late period, that all goods thrown from 
wrecks upon the shores became the property of 
the crown, and it was not until comparatively 
quite a recent period that an English judge de- 
cided that such a principle, being contrary to 
justice and common sense, was not law ; and 
now wrecked property is restored to whom- 
soever can prove himself to be the owner, on 
his paying for the expense and trouble of sav- 
ing it. 



174 King Richard I. [1190. 

Richard having landed, Isaac asks a truce. Negotiating. 

On receiving the demand which Richard sent 
him, the King of Cyprus, anticipating difficulty, 
drew up his galleys in order of battle across 
the harbor, and inarched troops down to com- 
manding positions on the shove, wherever he 
thought there might be any danger that Rich- 
ard would attempt to land. Richard very soon 
brought up his forces and advanced to attack 
him. Isaac's troops retreated as Richard ad- 
vanced. Finally they were driven back with- 
out much actual contest into the town, and Rich- 
ard then brought his squadron up into harbor 
and landed. Isaac, seeino- how much stronger 
Richard was than he, did not attempt any seri- 
ous resistance, but retired to the citadel. From 
the citadel he sent out a flas; of truce demand- 
ing a parley. 

Richard granted the request, and an inter- 
view took place, but it led to no result. Rich- 
ard found that Isaac was not yet absolutely sub- 
dued. He still asserted his rights, and com- 
plained of the gross wrong which Richard was 
perpetrating in invading his dominions, and 
seeking a quarrel with him without cause ; but 
the effect was like that of the lamb attempting 
to resist or recriminate the wolf, which, far from 
bringing the aggressor to reason, only awakens 



1190.] Campaign in Cyprus. 175 

Richard was a Norman, not an Englishman. 

more strongly his ferocity and rage. Richard 
turned toward his attendants, and, uttering a 
profane exclamation, said that Isaac talked like 
a fool of a Briton. 

It is mentioned as a remarkable circumstance 
by the historians that Richard spoke these 
words in English, and it is said that this was 
the only time in the course of his life that he 
ever used that language. It may seem very 
strange to the reader that an English king 
should not ordinarily use the English language. 
But, strictly speaking, Richard was not an En- 
glish king. He was a Norman king. The 
whole dynasty to which he belonged were Nor- 
man French in all their relations. Normandy 
they regarded as the chief seat of their empire. 
There were their principal cities — there their 
most splendid palaces. There they lived and 
reigned, with occasional excursions for compar- 
atively brief periods across the Channel. They 
considered England much as the present En- 
glish sovereigns do Ireland, namely, as a con- 
quered country, which had become a possession 
and a dependency upon the crown, but not in 
any sense the seat of empire, and they utterly 
despised the native inhabitants. In view of 
these facts, the wonder that Richard, the King 



176 King Richard I. [1190. 

Preparing for war. King Richard's battle-axe. 

of England, never spoke the English tongue at 
once disappears. 

The conference broke up, and both sides pre- 
pared for war. Isaac, finding that he was not 
strong enough to resist such a horde of invaders 
as Richard brought with him, withdrew from 
his capital and retired to a fortress among the 
mountains. Richard then easily took posses- 
sion of the town. A moderate force had been 
left to protect it ; but Richard, promising his 
troops plenty of booty when they should get 
into it, led the way, waving his battle-axe in 
the air. 

This battle-axe was a very famous weapon. 
It was one which Richard had caused to be 
made for himself before leavino- Eno-land, and 
it was the wonder of the army on account of 
its size and weight. The object of a battle-axe 
was to break through the steel armor with 
which the knights and warriors of those days 
were accustomed to cover themselves, and which 
was proof against all ordinary blows. Now 
Richard was a man of prodigious personal 
strength, and, when fitting out his expedition 
in England, he caused an unusually large and 
heavy battle-axe to be made for himself, by 
way of showing his men what he could do in 



1190.] Campaign in Cyprus. 177 

The conquest of Limesol. Signaling for the queen's galley. 

swinging a heavy weapon. . Tlie head of this 
axe, or hammer, as perhaps it might more prop- 
erly have been called, weighed twenty pounds, 
and most marvelous stories were told of the 
prodigious force of the blow that Richard could 
strike with it. When it came down on the 
head of a steel-clad knight on his horse, it broke 
through every thing, they said, and crushed man 
and horse both to the ground. 

The assault on Limesol was successful. The 
people made but a feeble resistance. Indeed, 
they had no weapons which could possibly en- 
able them to stand a moment against the Cru- 
saders. They were half naked, and their arms 
were little better than clubs and stones. They 
were, in consequence, very easily driven off the 
ground, and Richard took possession of the city. 

He then immediately made a signal for Joan- 
na's galley — which, during all this time, had 
remained at the mouth of the harbor — to ad- 
vance. The galley accordingly came up, and 
Joanna and the princess were received by the 
whole army at the landing with loud acclama- 
tions. They were immediately conducted into 
the town, and there were lodged splendidly in 
the best of Isaac's palaces. 
M 



178 King Richard L [1190. 

The terms of peace which Richard offered to Isaac. 

But the contest was not yet ended. The 
place to which Isaac had retreated was a city 
which he possessed in the interior of the island 
called Nicosia. From this place he sent a mes- 
senger to Richard to propose another conference, 
with a view of attempting once more to agree 
upon some terms of peace. Richard agreed to 
this, and a place of meeting was appointed on a 
plain near Limesol, the port. King Isaac, ac- 
companied by a suitable number of attendants, 
repaired to this place, and the conference was 
opened. Richard was mounted on a -favorite 
Spanish charger, and was splendidly dressed in 
silk and gold. He assumed a very lofty bear- 
ing and demeanor toward his humbled enemy, 
and informed him in a very summary manner 
on what terms alone he was willing to make 
peace. 

" I will make peace with you," said Richard, 
"on condition that you hold your kingdom 
henceforth subject to me. You are to deliver 
up all the castles and strongholds to me, and do 
me homage as your acknowledged sovereign. 
You are also to pay me an ample indemnity in 
gold for the damage you did to my wrecked 
galleys. I shall expect you, moreover, to join 
me in the crusade. You must accompany me 



1190.] Campaign in Cyprus. 179 

How Richard faithlessly took King Isaac a prisoner. 

to the Holy Land with not less than five hund- 
red foot-soldiers, four hundred horsemen, and 
one hundred full-armed knights. For security 
that you will faithfully fulfill these conditions, 
you must put the princess, your daughter, into 
my hands as a hostage. Then, in case your 
conduct while in my service in the Holy Land 
is in all respects perfectly satisfactory, I will 
restore your daughter, and also your castles, to 
you on my return." 

Isaac's daughter was a very beautiful young 
princess. She was extremely beloved by her 
father, and was highly honored by the people 
of the land as the heir to the crown. 

These conditions were certainly very hard, 
but the poor king was in no condition to resist 
any demands that Richard might choose to 
make. With much distress and anguish of 
mind, he pretended to agree to these terms, 
though he secretly resolved that he could not 
and would not submit to them. Richard sus- 
pected his sincerity, and, in utter violation of 
all honorable laws and usages of war, he made 
him a prisoner, and set guards over him to 
watch him until the stipulations should be car- 
ried into effect. Isaac contrived to escape from 
his keepers in the night, and, putting himself at 



180 King Richard I. [1190. 



King liichard subjugates Cyprus. 



the head of such troops as he could obtain, pre- 
pared for war, with the determination to resist 
to the last extremity. 

Richard now resolved to proceed at once to 
take the necessary measures for the complete 
subjugation of the island. He organized a large 
body of land forces, and directed them to ad- 
vance into the interior of the country, and put 
down all resistance. At the same time, he 
placed himself at the head of his fleet, and, sail- 
ing round the island, he took possession of all 
the towns and fortresses on the shore. -He also 
seized every ship and every boat, large and 
small, that he could find, and thus entirely cut 
off from King Isaac all chance of escaping by 
sea. In the mean time, the unhappy monarch, 
with the few troops that still adhered to him, 
was driven from place to place, until at last he 
was completely hemmed in, and was compelled 
to fight or surrender. They fought. The re- 
sult was what might have been expected. Rich- 
ard was victorious. The capital, Limesol, fell 
into his hands, and the king and his daughter 
were taken prisoners. 

The princess was greatly terrified when she 
was brought into Richard's presence. She fell 
on her knees before him, and cried, 



1190.] Campaign in Cyprus. 181 

The miserable death of King Isaac. 

"My lord the king, have mercy upon me !" 

Richard put forth his hand to lift her up, 
and then sent her to Berengaria. 

" I give her to you," said he, " for an attend- 
ant and companion." 

The king was almost broken-hearted at hav- 
ing his daughter taken away from him. He 
threw himself at Richard's feet, and begged him, 
with the most earnest entreaty, to restore him 
his child. Richard paid no heed to this re- 
quest, but ordered Isaac to be taken away. Soon 
after this he sent him across the sea to Tripoli 
in Syria, and there shut him up in the dungeon 
of a castle, a hopeless prisoner. The unhappy 
captive was secured in his dungeon by chains ; 
but, in honor of his rank, the chains, by Rich- 
ard's directions, were made of silver, overlaid 
with gold. The poor king pined in this place 
of confinement for four years, and then died. 

As soon as Isaac had gone, and things had 
become somewhat settled, Richard found him- 
self undisputed master of Cyprus, and he re- 
solved to annex the island to his own domin- 
ions. 

"And now," said he to himself, "it will be 
a good time for me to be married." 

So, after making the necessary arrangements 



182 King Eichard I. [1190. 

Richard's wedding at last. A coronation. 

for assembling his whole fleet again, and repair- 
ing the damages which had been sustained by 
the storm, he began to make preparations for 
the wedding. Berengaria made no objection to 
this. Indeed, the fright which she had suffer- 
ed at sea in being separated from Richard, and 
the anxiety she had endured when, after the 
storm, she gazed in every direction all around 
the horizon, and could see no signs in any quar- 
ter of his ship, and when, consequently, she 
feared that he might be lost, made her extreme- 
ly unwilling to be separated from him again. 

The marriage was celebrated with great pomp 
and splendor, and many feasts and entertain- 
ments, and public parades, and celebrations fol- 
lowed, to commemorate the event. Among the 
other grand ceremonies was a coronation — a 
double coronation. Eichard caused himself to 
be crowned King of Cyprus, and Berengaria 
Queen of England and of Cyprus too. 

The dress in which Eichard appeared on 
these occasions is minutely described. He 
wore a rose-colored satin tunic, which was fast- 
ened by a jeweled belt about his waist. Over 
this was a mantle of striped silver tissue, bro- 
caded with silver half-moons. He wore an el- 
egant and very costly sword too. The blade 



1190.] Campaign in Cyprus. 183 

The king's accoutrement. Favelle. 

was of Damascus steel, the hilt was of gold, 
and the scabbard was of silver, richly engraved 
in scales. On his head he wore a scarlet bon- 
net, brocaded in gold with figures of animals. 
He bore in his hand what was called a trun- 
cheon, which was a sort of sceptre, very splen- 
didly covered and adorned. 

He had an elegant horse— a Spanish charger 
— and wherever he went this horse was led be- 
fore him, with the bits, and stirrups, and all the 
metallic mountings of the saddle and bridle in 
gold. The crupper was adorned with two gold- 
en lions, figured with their paws raised in the 
act of striking each other. Richard obtained 
another horse in Cyprus among the spoils that 
he acquired there, and which afterward became 
his favorite. His name was Favelle, though in 
some of the old annals he is called Faunelle. 
This horse acquired great fame by the strength 
and courage, and also the great sagacity, that he 
displayed in the various battles that he was en- 
gaged in with his master. Indeed, at last, he 
became quite a historical character. 

Richard himself was a tall and well-formed 
man, and altogether a very fine-looking man, 
and in this costume, with his yellow curls and 



184 KiNfi Richard I. [1190. 



The appearance of Berengaria. 



"bright complexion, lie appeared, they said, a 
perfect model of military and manly grace. 

There is a representation of Berengaria ex- 
tant which is supposed to show her as she ap- 
peared at this time. Her hair is parted in the 
middle in front, and hangs down in long tresses 
behind. It is covered with a veil, open on each 
side, like a Spanish mantilla. The veil is fast- 
ened to her head by a royal diadem resplend- 
ent with gold and gems, and is surmounted with 
a fleur de lis, with so much foliage added to it 
as to give it the appearance of a double crown, 
in allusion to her being the queen both of Cy- 
prus and of England. 

The whole time occupied by these transac- 
tions in Cyprus was only about a month, and 
now, since every thing had been finished to his 
satisfaction, Richard began to think once more 
of prosecuting his voyage. 



1190.] Voyage to Acre. 185 

The different names of Acre. Order of St. Jobn. 



Chapter XL 
Voyage to Acre. 

THE great landing-point for expeditions of 
Crusaders to the Holy Land was Acre, or 
Akka, as it is often written. The town was 
originally known as Ptolemais, and the situa- 
tion of it may be found designated on ancient 
maps under that name. The Turks called it 
Akka, which name the French call Acre. It 
was also, after a certain time, called St. Jean 
d'Acre. It received this name from a famous 
military order that was founded in the Holy 
Land in the Middle Ages, called the Knights of 
St. John. 

The origin of the order was as follows : About 
a hundred years before the time of Richard's 
crusade, a company of pious merchants from 
Naples, who went to Jerusalem, took pity, while 
they were there, on the pilgrims who came there 
to visit the Holy Sepulchre, and who, being 
poor, and very insufficiently provided for the 
journey, suffered a great many privations and 
hardships. These merchants accordingly built 



186 King Kichard I. [1190. 

The Hospitalers. Knights of St. John. 

find endowed a monastery, and made it the duty 
of the monks to receive and take care of a cer- 
tain number of these pilgrims. 

They named the establishment the Monas- 
tery of St. John, and the monks themselves 
were called Hospitalers, their business being 
to receive and show hospitality to the pilgrims. 
So the monks were sometimes designated as 
the Hospitalers and sometimes the Brothers of 
St. John. 

Other travelers, who came to Jerusalem from 
time to time, seeing this monastery, and observ- 
ing the good which it was the means of effect- 
ing for the poor pilgrims, became interested in 
its welfare, and made grants and donations to it, 
by which, in the course of fifty years, it became 
much enlarged. At length, in process of time, 
a military order was connected with it. The 
pilgrims needed protection in going to and fro, 
as well as food, shelter, and rest at the end of 
their journey, and the military order was form- 
ed to furnish this protection. The knights of 
this order were called Knights Hospitalers, and 
sometimes Knights of St. John. The institu- 
tion continued to grow, and finally the seat of 
it was transferred to Acre, which was a much 
more convenient place for giving succor to the 



1190.] Voyage to Acre. 187 

Origin of the name of St. Jean d' Acre. The order. 

pilgrims, and also for fighting the Saracens, who 
were the great enemies that the pilgrims had to 
fear. From this time the institution was called 
St. John of Acre, as it was before St. John of 
Jerusalem, and finally its power and influence 
became so predominant in the town that the 
town itself was generally designated by the 
name of the institution, and it has been called 
St. Jean d'Acre to this day. 

The order became at last very numerous. 
Great numbers of persons joined it from all the 
nations of Europe. They organized a regular 
government. They held fortresses and towns, 
and other territorial possessions of considerable 
value. They had a fleet, and an army, and a 
rich treasury. In a word, they became, as it 
were, a government and a nation. 

The persons belonging to the order were di- 
vided into three classes : 

1. Knights. — These were the armed men. 
They fought the battles, defended the pilgrims, 
managed the government, and performed all oth- 
er similar functions. 

2. Chaplains. — These were the priests and 
monks. They conducted worship, and attend- 
ed, in general, to all the duties of devotion. 
They were the scholars, too, and acted as sec- 



188 King Richard I. [1190. 



A description of the town of Acre. 



retaries and readers, whenever such duties were 
required. 

3. Servitors. — The duty of the servitors was, 
as their name imports, to take charge of the 
buildings and grounds belonging to the order, 
to wait upon the sick, and accompany pilgrims, 
and to perform, in general, all other duties per- 
taining to their station. 

The town of Acre stood on the shore of the 
sea, and was very strongly fortified. The walls 
and ramparts were very massive — altogether 
too thick and high to be demolished or scaled 
by any means of attack known in those days. 
The place had been In possession of the Knights 
of St. John, but in the course of the wars be- 
tween the Saracens and the Crusaders that had 
prevailed before Richard came, it had fallen into 
the hands of the Saracens, and now the Cru- 
saders were besieging it, in hopes to recover 
possession. They were encamped in thousands 
on a plain outside the town, in a beautiful sit- 
uation overlooking the sea. Still farther back 
among the mountains were immense hordes of 
Saracens, watching an opportunity to come down 
upon the plain and overwhelm the Christian 
armies, while they, on the other hand, were 
making continued assaults upon the town, in 



1190.] Voyage to Acre. 191 

Philip before Acre. The siege. 

hopes of carrying it by storm, "before their ene- 
mies on the mountains could attack them. Of 
course, the Crusaders were extremely anxious 
to have Richard arrive, for they knew that he 
was brino-ino* with him an immense re-enforce- 
ment. 

Philip, the French king, had already arrived, 
and he exerted himself to the utmost to take 
the town before Richard should come. But he 
could not succeed. The town resisted all the 
attempts he could make to storm it, and, in the 
mean time, his position and that of the other 
Crusaders in the camp was becoming very crit- 
ical, on account of the immense numbers of Sar- 
acens in the mountains behind them, who were 
gradually advancing their posts and threaten- 
ing to surround the Christians entirely. Philip, 
therefore, and the forces joined with him, were 
beginning to feel very anxious to see Richard's 
ships drawing near, and from their encampment 
on the plain they looked out over the sea, and 
watched day after day, earnestly in hopes that 
they might see the advanced ships of Richard's 
fleet coming into view in the offing. 

In the mean time, Richard, having sailed from 
Cyprus, was coming on, though he was delayed 
on his way by an occurrence which he greatly 



192 King Richard I. [1190. 

Chasing a Saracen vessel. Desperation. 

gloried in, deeming it doubtless a very brilliant 
exploit. The case was this : 

In sailing along with his squadron between 
Cyprus and the main land, he suddenly fell in 
with a ship of very large size. At first Rich- 
ard and his men wondered what ship it could 
be. It was soon evident that, whatever she 
was, she was endeavoring to escape. Richard 
ordered his galleys to press on, and he soon 
found that the strange ship was full of Sara- 
cens. He immediately ordered his men to ad- 
vance and board her, and he declared to his sea- 
men that if they allowed her to escape he would 
crucify them. 

The Saracens, seeing that there was no pos- 
sibility of escape, and having no hope of mercy 
if they fell into Richard's hands, determined to 
scuttle the ship, and to sink themselves and the 
vessel together. They accordingly cut holes 
through the bottom as well as they could with 
hatchets, and the water began to pour in. In 
the mean time, Richard's galleys had surround- 
ed the vessel, and a dreadful combat ensued. 
Both parties fought like tigers. The Crusaders 
were furious to get on board before the ship 
should go down, and the Saracens, though they 
had no expectation of finally defending them- 



1190.] Voyage to Acee. 193 

The terrible Greek fire which the Saracens used. 



selves against their enemies, still hoped to keep 
them back until it should be too late for them 
to obtain any advantage from their victory. 

For a time they were quite successful in their 
resistance, chiefly by means of what was called 
Greek fire. This Greek fire was a celebrated 
means of warfare in those days, and was very 
terrible in its nature and effects. It is not 
known precisely what it was, or how it was 
made. It was an exceedingly combustible sub- 
stance, and was to be thrown, on fire, at the en- 
emy ; and such was its nature, that when once in 
flames nothing could extinguish it; and, besides 
the heat and burning that it produced, it threw 
out great volumes of poisonous and stifling va- 
pors, which suffocated all that came near. The 
men threw it sometimes in balls, sometimes on 
the ends of darts and arrows, where it was en- 
veloped in flax or tow to keep it in its place. 
It burned fiercely and furiously wherever it fell. 
Even water did not extinguish it, and it was 
said that in this combat the sea all around the 
Saracens' ship seemed on fire, and the decks of 
the galleys* that attacked them were blazing 
with it in every direction. Great numbers of 
Richard's men were killed by it. 

But the superiority of numbers on Richard's 
N 



194 King Richard 


L [1190. 


"i Ik- ship is t;vk-. n. A massacre. 


Kichard's defense. 



side was too great, and after a time the Sara- 
cens were subdued, before the ship had admitted 
water enough through the scuttlings to cany 
her down. Richard's men poured in on board 
of her in great numbers. They immediately 
proceeded to massacre or throw overboard the 
men as fast as possible, and to seize the stores 
and transfer them to their own ships. They 
also did all they could to stop the leaks, so as 
to delay the sinking of the ship as long as pos- 
sible. They had time to transfer to their own 
vessels nearly all the valuable part of the cargo, 
and to kill and drown all the men. Out of 
twelve or fifteen hundred, only about thirty- 
five were spared. 

When, afterward, public sentiment seemed 
inclined to condemn this terrible and inexcusa- 
ble massacre, Richard defended himself by say- 
ing that he found on board the vessel a number 
of jars containing certain poisonous reptiles, 
which he alleged the Saracens were going to 
take to Acre, and there let them loose near the 
Crusaders' camp to bite the soldiers, and that 
men who could resort to so barbarous a mode 
of warfare as this deserved no quarter. How- 
ever this may be, the poor Saracens received no 
quarter. It might be supposed that Richard 



1190.] Voyage to Acre. 195 

King Richard's cupidity. The sinking ship. 

deserved some credit for his humanity in saving 
the thirty -five. But his object in saving these 
was not to show mercy, but to gain ransom- 
money. These thirty-five were the emi?*s, or 
other officers of the Saracens, or persons who 
looked as if they might be rich or have rich 
friends. When they reached the shore, Rich- 
ard fixed upon a certain sum of money for each 
of them, and allowed them to send word to their 
friends that if they would raise that money and 
send it to Richard, he would set them at liber- 
ty. A great proportion of them were thus af- 
terward ransomed, and Richard realized from 
this source quite a large sum. 

When Richard's soldiers found that the time 
for the captured ship to sink was drawing nigh, 
they abandoned her, leaving on board every 
thing that they had not been able to save, and, 
withdrawing to a safe distance, they saw her go 
down. The sea all around her was covered 
with the bodies of the dead and dying, and also 
with bales of merchandise, broken weapons, 
fragments of the wreck, and with the flickering 
and exhausted remnants of the Greek fire. 

The fleet then got under way again, and pur- 
sued its course to Acre. 



196 King Richard L [1190. 

The besieging army at Acre. 



Chapter XII. 
The Arrival at Acre. 

WHILE Richard was thus, with his fleet, 
drawing near to Acre, the armies of the 
Crusaders that were besieging the town had 
been for some time gradually getting into a very 
critical situation. This army was made up of 
a great many different bodies of troops, that had 
come in the course of years from all parts of 
Europe to recover the Holy Land from the pos- 
session of the unbelievers. There were Ger- 
mans, and French, and Normans, and Italians, 
and people from the different kingdoms of Spain, 
with knights, and barons, and earls, and bish- 
ops, and archbishops, and princes, and other 
dignitaries of all kinds without number. With 
such a heterogeneous mass there could be no 
common bond, nor any general and central au- 
thority. They spoke a great variety of lan- 
guages, and were accustomed to very different 
modes of warfare ; and the several orders of 
knights, and the different bodies of troops, were 
continually getting involved in dissensions aris- 



1190.] Arrival at Acre. 197 

Motives of the Saracens. Motives of the Christians. 

ing from the jealousies and rivalries which they 
Lore to each other. The enemy, on the other 
hand, were united under the command of one 
great and powerful Saracen leader named Sal- 
adin. 

There was another great difference between 
the Crusaders and the Saracens which was 
greatly to the advantage of the latter. The 
Saracens were fighting simply to deliver their 
country from these bands of invaders. Thus 
their object was one. If any part of the army 
achieved a success, the other divisions rejoiced 
at it, for it tended to advance them all toward 
the common end that all had in view. On the 
other hand, the chief end and aim of the Cru- 
saders was to get glory to themselves in the 
estimation of friends and neighbors at home, 
and of Europe in general. It is true that they 
desired to obtain this glory by victories over 
the unbelievers and the conquest of the Holy 
Land, but these last objects were the means 
and not the end. The end, in their view, was 
their own personal glory. The consequence 
was, that while the Saracens would naturally all 
rejoice at an advantage gained over the enemy 
by any portion of their army, yet in the camp 
of the Crusaders, if one body of knights per- 



198 King Richard I. [1190. 

Envyings and jealousy among the besiegers. 

formed a great deed of strength or bravery 
which was likely to attract attention in Europe, 
the rest were apt to be disappointed and vexed 
instead of being pleased. They were envious 
of the fame which the successful party had ac- 
quired. In a word, when an advantage was 
gained by any particular body of troops, the 
rest did not think of the benefit to the common 
cause which had thereby been secured, but only 
of the danger that the fame acquired by those 
who gained it might eclipse or outshine their 
own renown. 

The various orders of knights and the com- 
manders of the different bodies of troops vied 
with each other, not only in respect to the ac- 
quisition of glory, but also in the elegance of 
their arms, the splendor of their tents and ban- 
ners, the beauty and gorgeous caparisons of the 
horses, and the pomp and parade with which 
they conducted all their movements and opera- 
tions. The camp was full of quarrels, too, 
among the great leaders in respect to the com- 
mand of the places in the Holy Land which had 
been conquered in previous campaigns. These 
places, as fast as they had been taken, had been 
made principalities and kingdoms, to give titles 
of rank to the crusaders who had taken them ; 



1190.] Arrival at Acre. 199 

King of Jerusalem. A common danger makes a common cause. 

and, though the places themselves had in many 
instances been lost again, and given up to the 
Saracens, the titles remained to be quarreled 
about among the Crusaders. There was partic- 
ularly a great quarrel at this time about the ti- 
tle of King of Jerusalem. It was a mere emp- 
ty title, for Jerusalem was in the hands of the 
Saracens, but there were twenty very powerful 
and influential claimants to it, each of whom 
manoeuvred and intrigued incessantly with all 
the other knights and commanders in the army 
to gain partisans to his side. Thus the camp 
of the Crusaders, from one cause and another, 
had become one universal scene of rivalry, jeal- 
ousy, and discord. 

There was a small approach toward a great- 
er degree of unity of feeling just before the time 
of Richard's arrival, produced by the common 
danger to which they began to see they were 
exposed. They had been now two years be- 
sieging Acre, and had accomplished nothing. 
All the furious attempts that they had made to 
storm the place had been unsuccessful. The 
walls were too thick and solid for the battering- 
rams to make any serious impression upon 
them, and the garrison within were so numer- 
ous and so well armed, and thev hurled down 



200 King Richard I. [1190. 

The terrible loss of life in the siege of Acre. 

such a tremendous shower of darts, javelins, 
stones, and other missiles of every kind upon 
all who came near, that immense numbers of 
those who were brought up near the walls to 
work the engines were killed, while the besieged 
themselves, being protected by the battlements 
on the walls, were comparatively safe. 

In the course of the two years during which 
the siege had now been going on, bodies of 
troops from all parts of Europe had been con- 
tinually coming and going, and as in those days 
there was far less of system and organization in 
the conduct of military affairs than there is now, 
the camp was constantly kept in a greater or 
less degree of confusion, so that it is impossible 
to know with certainty how many were en- 
gaged, and what the actual loss of life had been. 
The lowest estimate is that one hundred and 
fifty thousand men perished before Acre during 
this siege, and some historians calculate the 
loss at five hundred thousand. The number 
of deaths was greatly increased by the plague, 
which prevailed at one time among the troops, 
and committed fearful ravages. One thing, 
however, must be said, in justice to the reckless 
and violent men who commanded these bands, 
and that is, that they did not send their poor, 



1190.] Arrival at Acre. 201 

The unwieldy armor of the knights. 

helpless followers, the common soldiers, into a 
danger which they kept out of themselves. It 
was a point of honor with them to take the fore- 
most rank, and to expose themselves fully at 
all times to the worst dangers of the combat. 
It is true that the knights and nobles were bet- 
ter protected by their armor than the soldiers. 
They were generally covered with steel from 
head to foot, and so heavily loaded with it were 
they, that it was only on horseback that they 
could sustain themselves in battle at all. In- 
deed, it was said that if a full-armed knight, in 
those days, were, from any accident, unhorsed, 
his armor was so heavy that, if he were thrown 
down upon the ground in his fall, he could not 
possibly get up again without help. 

Notwithstanding this protection, however, the 
knights and commanders exposed themselves so 
much that they suffered in full proportion with 
the rest. It was estimated that during the 
siege there fell in battle, or perished of sickness 
or fatigue, eighteen or twenty archbishops and 
bishops, forty earls, and no less than five hund- 
red barons, all of whose names are recorded. 
So they obtained what they went for — com- 
memoration in history. Whether the reward 
was worth the price they paid for it, in sacrific- 



202 King Richard I. [1190. 

King Richard received by the besieging army. 



ing every thing like happiness and usefulness in 
life, and throwing themselves, after a few short 
months of furious and angry warfare, into a 
bloody grave, is a very serious question. 

As soon as Richard's fleet appeared in view, 
the whole camp was thrown into a state of the 
wildest commotion. The drums were beat, the 
trumpets were sounded, and flags and banners 
without number were waved in the air. The 
troops were paraded, and when the ships arrived 
at the shore, and Richard and his immediate 
attendants and followers landed, they were re- 
ceived by the commanders of the Crusaders' 
army on the beach with the highest honors, 
while the soldiers drawn up around filled the 
air with long and loud acclamations. 

Berengaria had come from Cyprus, not in 
Richard's ship, although she was now married 
to him. She had continued in her own galley, 
and was still under the charge of her former 
' guardian, Stephen of Turnham. That ship had 
been fitted up purposely for the use of the queen 
and the princess, and the arrangements on board 
were more suitable for the accommodation of 
ladies than were those of Richard's ship, which 
being strictly a war vessel, and intended always 



1190.] Arrival at Acre. 203 

Berengaria a bride. Philip's conciliation. 

to be foremost in every tight, was arranged 
solely with a view to the purposes of battle, 
and was therefore not a very suitable place for 
a bride. 

Berengaria and Joanna landed very soon after 
Richard. Philip was a little piqued at the sud- 
denness with which Richard had married anoth- 
er lady, so soon after the engagement with Alice 
had been terminated ; but he considered how ur- 
gent the necessity was that he should now be 
on good terms with his ally, and so he con- 
cealed his feelings, and received Berengaria him- 
self as she came from her ship, and assisted 
her to land. 



204 King Richard I. [1191. 

Bichard's arrogance produces dissension in the camp. 



Chapter XIII. 
Difficulties. 

IT was but a very short time after Richard 
had landed his forces at Acre, and had taken 
his position in the camp on the plain before the 
city, before serious difficulties began to arise 
between him and Philip. This, indeed, might 
have been easily foreseen. It was perfectly cer- 
tain that, so soon as Richard should enter the 
camp of the Crusaders, he would immediately 
assume such airs of superiority, and attempt to 
lord it over all the other kings and princes 
there in so reckless and dictatorial a manner, 
that there could be no peace with him except in 
entire submission to his will. 

This was, accordingly, soon found to be the 
case. He began to quarrel with Philip in a 
very short time, notwithstanding the sincere 
desire that Philip manifested to live on good 
terms with him. Of course, the knights and 
barons, and, after a time, the common soldiers in 
the two armies, took sides with their respective 
sovereigns. One great source of trouble was, 
that Richard claimed to be the feudal sovereign 



1191.] Difficulties. 205 

The progress of the quarrel In tween Richard and Philip. 

of Philip himself, on account of some old claims 
that he advanced, as Duke of Normandy, over 
the French kingdom. This pretension Philip/ 
of course, would not admit, and the question 
gave rise to endless disputes and heartburnings. 
Presently the quarrel extended to other por- 
tions of the army of the Crusaders, and the 
different orders of knights and bodies of sol- 
diers espoused, some one side and some the 
other. The Knights Hospitalers, described in 
a former chapter, who had now become a nu- 
merous and very powerful force, took Richard's 
side. Indeed, Richard was personally popular 
among the knights and barons generally, on ac- 
count of his prodigious strength and the many 
feats of reckless daring that he performed. 
When he went out every body flocked to see 
him, and the whole camp was full of the stories 
that were told of his wonderful exploits. He 
made use of the distinction which he thus ac- 
quired as a means of overshadowing Philip's 
influence and position. This Philip, of course, 
resented, and then the English said that he was 
envious of Richard's superiority; and they at- 
tempted to lay the whole blame of the quarrel 
on him, attributing the unfriendly feeling sim- 
ply to what they considered his weak and un- 



206 King Eichakd L [1191. 

The English and French armies no longer co-operate. 

generous jealousy of a more successful and for- 
tunate rival. 

However this may be, the disagreement soon 
became so great that the two kings could no 
longer co-operate together in fighting against 
their common enemy. 

Philip planned an assault against the town. 
He was going to take it by storm. Richard 
did not join him in this attempt. He made it 
an excuse that he was sick at the time. In- 
deed, he was sick not long after his arrival at 
Acre, but whether his illness really prevented 
his co-operating with Philip in the assault, or 
was only made use of as a pretext, is not quite 
certain. At any rate, Richard left Philip to 
make the assault alone, and the consequence 
was that the French troops were driven back 
from the walls with great loss. Richard secret- 
ly rejoiced at this discomfiture, but Philip was 
in a great rage. 

Not long afterward Richard planned an as- 
sault, to be executed with his troops alone ; for 
Philip now stood aloof, and refused to aid him. 
Richard had no objection to this ; indeed, he 
rejoiced in an opportunity to show the world 
that he could succeed in accomplishing a feat 
of arms after Philip had attempted it and failed. 



1191.] Difficulties. 209 

Preparations for an assault. A repulse. Reflections. 

So he brought forward the engines that he 
had caused to be built at Messina, and set them 
up. He organized his assaulting columns and 
prepared for the attack. He made the scaling- 
ladders ready, and provided his men with great 
stores of ammunition ; and when the appointed 
day at length arrived, he led his men on to the 
assault, fully confident that he was about to 
perforin an exploit that would fill all Europe 
with his fame. 

But, unfortunately for him, he was doomed 
to disappointment. His men were driven back 
from the Avails. The engines were overthrown 
and broken to pieces, or set on fire by flaming 
javelins sent from the walls, and burned to the 
ground. Vast numbers of his soldiers were 
killed, and at length, all hope of success having 
disappeared, the troops were drawn off, discom- 
fited and excessively chagrined. 

The reflections which would naturally follow 
in the minds of Philip and Richard, as they sat 
in their tents moodily pondering on these fail- 
ures, led them to think that it would be better 
for them to cease quarreling with each other, 

and to combine their strength against the com- 
es o 

mon enemy. Indeed, their situation was now 

fast becoming very critical, inasmuch as every 

O 



210 King Richard I. [1191. 

Dangers of the army. A nominal friendship between real enemies. 

day during which the capture of the town was 
delayed the troops of Saladin on the mountains 
around them were gradually increasing in num- 
bers, and gaining in the strength of their posi- 
tion, and they might at any time now be ex- 
pected to come pouring down upon the plain in 
such force as entirely to overwhelm the whole 
army of the Crusaders. 

So Richard and Philip made an agreement 
with each other that they would thenceforth 
live together on better terms, and endeavor to 
combine their strength against the common en- 
emy, instead of wasting it in petty quarrels 
with each other. 

From this time things went on much better 
in the camp of the allies, while yet there was 
no real or cordial friendship between Richard 
and Philip, or any of their respective partisans. 
Richard attempted secretly to entice away 
knights and soldiers from Philip's service by 
offering them more money or better rewards 
than Philip paid them, and Philip, when he 
discovered this, attempted to retaliate by en- 
deavoring to buy off, in the same manner, some 
of Richard's men. In a word, the fires of the 
feud, though covered up and hidden, were burn- 
ing away underneath as fiercely as ever. 



1191.] The Fall of Acee. 211 

The distress of the besieged city. Famine. Disappointed hopes. 



Chapter XIV. 
The Fall of Acre. 

ALTHOUGH the allies failed to reduce 
Acre by assault, the town was at last com- 
pelled to submit to them through the distress 
and misery to which the inhabitants and the 
garrison were finally reduced by famine. They 
bore these sufferings as long as they could, but 
the time arrived at last when they could be en- 
dured no longer. They hoped for some relief 
which was to have been sent to them by sea 
from Cairo, but it did not come. They also 
hoped, day after day, and week after week, that 
Saladin would be strong enough to come down 
from the mountains, and break through the camp 
of the Crusaders on the plain and rescue them. 
But they were disappointed. The Crusaders 
had fortified their camp in the strongest man- 
ner, and then they were so numerous and so 
fully armed that Saladin thought it useless to 
make any general attack upon them with the 
force that lie had under his command. 

The siege had continued two years when 



212 King Richard I. [1191. 

The various methods of warfare. Undermining the walls. 

Philip and Richard arrived. They came early 
in the spring of 1191. Of course, their arrival 
greatly strengthened the camp of the besiegers, 
and went far to extinguish the remaining hopes 
of the garrison. The commanders, however, 
did not immediately give up, but held out some 
months longer, hoping every day for the arrival 
of the promised relief from Cairo. In the mean 
time, they continued to endure a succession of 
the most vigorous assaults from the Crusaders, 
of which very marvelous tales are told in the 
romantic narratives of those times. In these 
narratives we have accounts of the engines 
which Richard set up opposite the walls, and 
of the efforts made by the besieged to set them 
on fire ; of Richard's working, himself, like any 
common soldier in putting these engines togeth- 
er, and in extinguishing the flames when they 
were set on fire ; of a vast fire-proof shed which 
was at last contrived to cover and protect the 
engines — the covering of the roof being made 
lire-proof with green hides ; and of a plan which 
was finally adopted, when it was found that the 
walls could not be beaten down by battering- 
rams, of undermining them with a view of mak- 
ing them tumble down by their own weight. 
In this case, the workmen who undermined the 



1191.] The Fall of Acre. 213 

The effect on the walls. A spy in the city. 

walls were protected at their work by sheds 
built over them, and, in order to prevent the 
walls from falling upon them while they were 
mining, they propped them up with great beams 
of wood, so placed that they could make fires 
under the beams when they were ready for the 
walls to fall, and then have time to retreat to 
a safe distance before they should be burned 
through. This plan, however, did not succeed ; 
for the walls were so prodigiously thick, and 
the blocks of stone of which they were composed 
were so firmly bound together, that, instead of 
falling into a mass of ruins, as Richard had ex- 
pected, when the props had been burned through, 
they only settled down bodily on one side into 
the excavation, and remained nearly as good, for 
all purposes of defense, as ever. 

It was said that during the siege Richard and 
Philip obtained a great deal of information in 
respect to the plans of the Saracens through 
the instrumentality of some secret friend with- 
in the city, who contrived to find means of con- 
tinually sending them important intelligence. 
This intelligence related sometimes to the de- 
signs of the garrison in respect to sorties that 
they w T ere going to make, or to the secret plans 
that they had formed for procuring supplies of 



214 King Richard I. [1191. 



The letters which came on arrows. 



provisions or other succor ; at other times they 
related to the movements and designs of Sala- 
din, who was outside among the mountains, and 
especially to the attacks that he was contem- 
plating on the allied camp. This intelligence 
was communicated in various ways. The prin- 
cipal method was to send a letter by means of 
an arrow. An arrow frequently came down in 
some part of the allied camp, which, on being 
examined, was found to have a letter wound 
about the shaft. The letter was addressed to 
Richard, and was, of course, immediately car- 
ried to his tent. It was always found to con- 
tain very important information in respect to 
the condition or plans of the besieged. If a 
sortie was intended from the city, it stated the 
time and the place, and detailed all the arrange- 
ments, thus enabling Richard to be on his 
guard. So, if the Saracens were projecting an 
attack on the lines from within, the whole plan 
of it was fully explained, and, of course, it would 
then be very easy for Richard to frustrate it. 
The writer of the letters said that he was a 
Christian, but would not say who he was, and 
the mystery was never explained. It is quite 
possible that there is very little truth in the 
whole story. 



1191.] The Fall of Acke. 215 

A flag of truce. Terms proposed by the Saracens. 

At all events, though the assaults which the 
allies made against the walls and bulwarks of 
the town were none of them wholly successful, 
the general progress of the siege was altogether 
in their favor, and against the poor Saracens 
shut up within it. The last hope which they 
indulged was that some supplies would come to 
them by sea ; but Richard's fleet, which remain- 
ed at anchor off the town, blockaded the port so 
completely that there was no possibility that 
any thing could get in. The last lingering hope 
was, therefore, at length abandoned, and when 
the besieged found that they could endure their 
horrible misery no longer, they sent a flag of 
truce out to the camp of the besiegers, with a 
proposal to negotiate terms of surrender. 

Then followed a long negotiation, with dis- 
plays of haughty arrogance on one side, and 
heart-broken and bitter humiliation on the oth- 
er. The Saracens first proposed what they 
considered fair and honorable terms, and Phil- 
ip was disposed to accept them ; but Richard 
rejected them with scorn. After a vain attempt 
at resistance, Philip was obliged to yield, and 
to allow his imperious and overbearing ally to 
have his own way. The Saracens wished to 
stipulate for the lives of the garrison, but Rich- 



216 King Richard I. 


[1191. 


Richard's exactions and his threats. 


The convention. 



ard refused. He told them they must submit 
unconditionally ; and, for his part, he did not 
care, he said, whether they yielded now or con- 
tinued the contest. He should soon be in pos- 
session of the city, at any rate, and if they held 
out until he took it by storm, then, of course, it 
would be given up to the unbridled fury of the 
soldiers, who would mercilessly massacre every 
living thing they should find in it, and seize ev- 
ery species of property as plunder. This, he 
declared, was sure to be the end of the siege, 
and that very soon, unless they chose to sub- 
mit. The Saracens then asked what terms he 
required of them. Richard stated his terms, 
and they asked for a little time to consider 
them and to confer with Saladin, who, being 
the sultan, was their sovereign, and without his 
approval they could not act. 

So the negotiation was opened, and, after va- 
rious difficulties and delays, a convention was 
finally agreed upon. The terms were these : 

I. The city was to be surrendered to the al- 
lied armies, and all the arms, ammunition, mil- 
itary stores, and property of all kinds which it 
contained were to be forfeited to the conquer- 
ors. 



1191.] The Fall of Acre. 217 

The ransom of the captives. Hostages. 

II. The troops and the people of the town 
were to be allowed to go free on the payment 
of a ransom. 

III. The ransom by which the besieged pur- 
chased their lives and liberty was to be made 
up as follows : 

1. The wood of the cross on which Christ 
was crucified, which was alleged to be in Sala- 
din's possession, was to be restored. 

2. Saladin was to set at liberty the Chris- 
tian captives which he had taken in the course 
of the war from various armies of Crusaders, 
and which he now held as prisoners. The 
number of these prisoners was about fifteen 
hundred. 

3. He was to pay two hundred thousand 
pieces of gold. 

IV. Richard was to retain a large body of 
men — it was said that there were about five 
thousand in all — consisting of soldiers of the 
garrison or inhabitants of the town, as hostages 
for the fulfillment of these conditions. These 
men were to be kept forty days, or, if at the 
end of that time Saladin had not fulfilled the 
conditions of the surrender, they were all to be 
put to death. 



218 King Richard I. [1191. 

Saladin's assent. Richard enters Acre in triumph. 

Perhaps Saladin agreed to these terms, under 
the pressure of dire necessity, compelled as he 
was to assent to whatever Richard might pro- 
pose by the dreadful extremity to which the 
town was reduced, without sufficiently consid- 
ering whether he would be really able to fulfill 
his promises. At any rate, these were the 
promises that he made; and as soon as the 
treaty was duly executed, the gates of Acre 
were opened to the conquerors, while Saladin 
himself broke up his encampment on the mount- 
ains, and withdrew his troops farther into the 
interior of the country. 

Although the treaty was made and executed 
in the name of both the kings, Richard had 
taken into his hands almost the whole conduct 
of the negotiation, and now that the army was 
about to take possession of the town, he consid- 
ered himself the conqueror of it. He entered 
with great parade, assigning to Philip altogeth- 
er a secondary part in the ceremony. He also 
took possession of the principal palace of the 
place as his quarters, and there established him- 
self with Berengaria and Joanna, while he left 
Philip to take up his residence wherever he 
could. The flags of both monarchs were, how- 
ever, raised upon the walls, and so far Philip's 



1191.] The Fall of Acre. 219 

The Archduke of Austria's banner. Philip in trouble. 

claim to a joint sovereignty over the place was 
acknowledged. But none of the other princes 
or potentates who had been engaged in the 
siege were allowed to share this honor. One 
of them — the Archduke of Austria — ventured to 
raise his banner on one of the towers, but Rich- 
ard pulled it down, tore it to pieces, and tram- 
pled it under his feet. 

This, of course, threw the archduke into a 
dreadful rage, and most of the other smaller 
princes in the army shared the indignation that 
he felt at the grasping disposition which Rich- 
ard manifested, and at his violent and domineer- 
ing behavior. But they were helpless. Rich- 
ard was stronger than they, and they were com- 
pelled to submit. 

As for Philip, he had long since begun to find 
his situation extremely disagreeable. He was 
very sensitive to the overbearing and arrogant 
treatment which he received, but he either had 
not the force of character or the physical 
strength to resist it. Now, since Acre had 
fallen, he found his situation worse than ever. 
There was no longer any enemy directly before 
them, and it was only the immediate presence 
of an enemy that had thus far kept Richard 
within any sort of bounds. Philip saw now 



220 King Eichard I. [1191. 

Philip's secret plans. Title of King of Jerusalem. 

plainly that if lie were to remain in the Holy 
Land, and attempt to continue the war, he could 
only do it by occupying an altogether second- 
ary and subordinate position, and to this he 
thought it was wholly inconsistent with his 
rights and dignities as an independent sover- 
eign to descend ; so he began to revolve se- 
cretly in his mind, how he could honorably with- 
draw from the expedition and return home. 

While things were in this state, a great quar- 
rel, which had for a long time been gradually 
growing up in the camp of the Crusaders, but 
had been restrained and kept, in some degree, 
subdued by the excitement of the siege, broke 
out in great violence. The question was who 
should claim the title of King of Jerusalem. 
Jerusalem was at this time in the hands of the 
Saracens, so that the title was, for the time be- 
ing at least, a mere empty name. Still, there 
was a very fierce contention to decide who 
should possess it. It seems that it had origi- 
nally descended to a certain lady named Sibylla. 
It had come down to her as the descendant and 
heir of a very celebrated crusader named God- 
frey of Bouillon, who was the first king of Je- 
rusalem. He became King of Jerusalem by 
having headed the army of Crusaders that first 



1191.] The Fall of , 


A.cee. 221 


Sibylla. Guy of Lusignan. Isabella. 


Conrad of Montferrat. 



conquered it from the Saracens. This was 
about a hundred years before the time of the 
taking of Acre. The knights and generals of 
his army elected him King of Jerusalem a short 
time after he had taken it, and the title descend- 
ed from him to Sibylla. 

Sibylla was married to a famous knight 
named Guy of Lusignan, and he claimed the 
title of King of Jerusalem in right of his wife. 
This claim was acknowledged by the rest of the 
Crusaders so long as Sibylla lived, but at length 
she died, and then many persons maintained 
that the crown descended to her sister Isabella. 
Isabella was married to a knight named Hum- 
phrey of Huron, who had not strength or reso- 
lution enough to assert his claims. Indeed, he 
had the reputation of being a weak and timid 
man. Accordingly, another knight, named Con- 
rad of Montferrat, conceived the idea of taking 
his place. He contrived to seize and bear away 
the Lady Isabella, and afterward to procure a di- 
vorce for her from her husband, and then, final- 
ly, lie married her himself. He now claimed 
to be King of Jerusalem in right of Isabella, 
while Guy of Lusignan maintained that his right 
to the crown still continued. This was a nice 
question to be settled by such a rude horde of 



222 King Richard I. [1191. 

The positions of Richard and Philip respecting the title. 

fighting men as these Crusaders were, and some 
took one side of it and some the other, accord- 
ing as their various ideas on the subject of 
rights of succession or their personal partiali- 
ties inclined them. 

Now it happened that Philip and Richard 
had early taken opposite sides in respect to this 
affair, as indeed they did on almost every other 
subject that came before them. Guy of Lu- 
signan had gone to visit Richard while he was 
in Cyprus, and there, having had the field all to 
himself, had told his story in such a way, and 
also made such proposals and promises, as to 
enlist Richard in his favor. Richard there 
agreed that he would take Guy's part in the 
controversy, and he furnished him with a sum 
of money at that time to relieve his immediate 
necessities. He did this with a view of secur- 
ing Guy, as one of his partisans and adherents, 
in any future difficulties in which he might be 
involved in the course of the campaign. 

On the other hand, when Philip arrived at 
Acre, which it will be recollected was some time 
before Richard came, the friends and partisans 
of Conrad, who were there, at once proceeded to 
lay Conrad's case before him, and they so far 
succeeded as to lead Philip to commit himself 



1191.] The Fall of Acre. 223 

One of Richard's compromises. Philip announces his return. 

on that side. Thus the foundation of a quar- 
rel on this subject was laid before Richard land- 
ed. The quarrel was kept down, however, dur- 
ing the progress of the siege, but when at length 
the town was taken it broke out anew, and the 
whole body of the Crusaders became greatly 
agitated with it. At length some sort of com- 
promise was effected, or at least what was call- 
ed a compromise, but really, so far as the sub- 
stantial interests involved were concerned, Rich- 
ard had it all his own way. This affair still 
further alienated Philip's mind from his ally, 
and made him more desirous than ever to aban- 
don the enterprise and return home. 

Accordingly, after the two kings had been es- 
tablished in Acre a short time, Philip announced 
that he was sick, and unable any longer to pros- 
ecute the war in person, and that he was intend- 
ing to return home. When this was announced 
to Richard, he exclaimed, 

" Shame on him ! eternal shame ! and on all 
his kingdom, if he goes off and abandons us 
now before the work is clone." 

The work which Richard meant to have done 
was the complete recovery of the Holy Land 
from the possession of the Saracens. The tak- 
ing of Acre was a great step, but, after all, it was 



224 King Richard I. [1191. 

Richard's objections to Philip's return. 

only a beginning. The army of the allies was 
now to march into the interior of the country 
to pursue Saladin, in hopes of conquering him 
in a general battle, and so at length gaining 
possession of the whole country and recovering 
Jerusalem. Richard, therefore, was very indig- 
nant with Philip for being disposed to abandon 
the enterprise while the work to be accomplish- 
ed was only just begun. 

There was another reason why Richard was 
alarmed at the idea of Philip's returning home. 

" He will take advantage of my absence," 
said he, " and invade my dominions, and so, 
when I return, I shall find that I have been 
robbed of half my provinces." 

So Richard did all he could to dissuade Phil- 
ip from returning ; but at length, finding that he 
could produce no impression on his mind, he 
yielded, and gave a sort of surly consent to the 
arrangement. " Let him go," said he, "if he 
will. Poor man ! He is sick, he says, and I 
suppose he thinks he can not live unless he can 
see Paris again." 

Richard insisted, however, that if Philip went 
he should leave his army behind, or, at least, a 
large portion of it ; so Philip agreed to leave 
ten thousand men. These men were to be un- 



1191.] The Fall of Acee. 225 

Philip's oath to Richard. Disapprobation of King Philip's course. 

der the command of the Duke of Burgundy, one 
of Philip's most distinguished nobles. The 
duke, however, himself was to be subject to the 
orders of Richard. 

Richard also exacted of Philip a solemn oath, 
that when he had returned to France he would 
not, in any way, molest or invade any of his 
— that is, Richard's — possessions, or make war 
against any of his vassals or allies. This agree- 
ment was to continue in force, and to be binding 
upon Philip until forty days after Richard should 
have himself returned from the Crusade. 

These things being all thus arranged, Philip 
began to make his preparations openly for em- 
barking on his voyage home. The knights and 
barons, and indeed the whole body of the army, 
considered Philip's leaving them as a very cul- 
pable abandonment of the enterprise, and they 
crowded around the place of embarkation when 
he went on board his vessel, and manifested 
their displeasure with ill-suppressed hisses and 
groans. 

The time which had been fixed upon for Sal- 
adin to comply with the stipulations of the sur- 
render was forty days, and this period was now, 
after Philip had gone, drawing rapidly to a close. 
P 



226 King Richard I. [1191. 

Saladin is unable to fulfill his promises. Brutality of Richard. 

Saladin found that he could not fulfill the con- 
ditions to which he had agreed. As the day 
approached he made various excuses and apol- 
ogies to Richard, and he also sent him a num- 
ber of costly presents, hoping, perhaps, in that 
way to propitiate his favor, and prevent his in- 
sisting on the execution of the dreadful penalty 
which had been agreed upon in case of default, 
namely, the slaughter of the five thousand hos- 
tages which had been left in his hands. 

The time at last expired, and the treaty had 
not been fulfilled. Richard, without waiting 
even a day, determined that the hostages should 
be slain. A rumor was set in circulation that 
Saladin had put to death all his Christian pris- 
oners. This rumor was false, but it served its 
purpose of exasperating the minds of the Cru- 
saders, so as to bring the soldiers up well to the 
necessary pitch of ferocity for executing so ter- 
rible a work. The slaughter of five thousand 
defenseless and unresisting men, in cold blood, 
is a very hard work for even soldiers to per- 
form, and if such a work is to be done, it is al- 
ways necessary to contrive some means of heat- 
ing the blood of the executioners in order to 
insure the accomplishment of it. In this case, 
the rumor that Saladin had murdered his Chris- 



1191.] The Fall of Acre. 227 

The massacre of the Saracen captives. 

tian prisoners was more than sufficient. It 
wrought up the allied army to such a phrensy 
that the soldiers assembled in crowds, and ri- 
otously demanded that the Saracen prisoners 
should be given up to them, in order that they 
might have their revenge. 

Accordingly, at the appointed time, Richard 
gave the command, and the whole body of the 
prisoners were brought out, and conducted to 
the plain beyond the lines of the encampment. 
A few were reserved. These were persons of 
rank and consideration, who were to be saved 
in hopes that they might have wealthy friends 
at home who would pay money to ransom them. 
The rest were divided into two portions, one of 
which was committed to the charge of the Duke 
of Burgundy, and the other Richard led him- 
self. The dreadful processions formed by these 
wretched men were followed by the excited sol- 
diery that were to act as their executioners, 
who came crowding on in throngs, waving their 
swords, and filling the air with their ferocious 
threats and imprecations, and exulting in the 
prospect of having absolutely their fill of the 
pleasure of killing men, without any danger to 
themselves to mar the enjoyment of it. 

The massacre was carried into effect in the 



228 King Richard I. [1191. 

Richard's exultation. Supernatural approval. 

fullest possible manner ; and after the men were 
killed, the Christians occupied themselves in 
cutting open their bodies to find jewels and 
other articles of value, which they pretended 
that the poor captives had swallowed in order 
to hide them from their enemies. 

Instead of being ashamed of this deed, Rich- 
ard gloried in it. He considered it a wonder- 
ful proof of his zeal for the cause of Christ. 
The writers of the time praised it. The Sara- 
cens, they maintained, were the enemies of God, 
and whoever slew them did God service. One 
of the historians of the time says that angels 
from heaven appeared to Richard at the time, 
and urged him to persevere to the end, crying 
aloud to him while the massacre was going on, 
"Kill! kill! Spare them not!" 

It seems to us at the present day most amaz- 
ing that the minds of men could possibly be so 
perverted as to think that in performing such 
deeds as this they were sustaining the cause of 
the meek and gentle Jesus of Nazareth, and 
were the objects of approval and favor with 
God, the common father of us all, who has de- 
clared that he has made of one blood all the 
nations of the earth, to live together in peace 
and unity. 



1191.] Progress of the Crusade. 229 

Richard leaving Acre. Modern warfare. 



Chapter XV. 
Progress of the Crusade. 

THE first thing which Richard had now to 
do, before commencing a march into the 
interior of the country, was to set every thing 
in order at Acre, and to put the place in a good 
condition of defense, in case it should be at- 
tacked while he was gone. The walls in many 
places were to be repaired, particularly where 
they had been undermined by Richard's sap- 
pers, and in many places, too, they had been 
broken down or greatly damaged by the action 
of the battering-rams and other engines. In 
the case of sieges prosecuted by means of ar- 
tillery in modern times, the whole interior of 
the town, as well as the walls, is usually bat- 
tered dreadfully by the shot and shells that are 
thrown over into it. A shell, which is a hol- 
low ball of iron sometimes more than a foot in 
diameter, and with sides two or three inches 
thick, and filled within with gunpowder, is 
thrown from a mortar, at a distance of some 
miles, high into the air over the town, whence 



230 King Richard I. [1191. 

Contrast between modern and ancient weapons. 

it descends into the streets or among the houses. 
The engraving represents the form of the mor- 
tar, and the manner in which the shell is thrown 
from it, though in this case the shell represented 
is directed, not against the town, but is thrown 
from a battery under the walls of the town 
against the camp or the trenches of the besiegers. 
These shells, of course, when they descend, 
come crashing through the roofs of the build- 
ings on which they strike, or bury themselves 
in the ground if they fall in the street, and then 
burst with a terrific explosion. A town that 
has been bombarded in a siege becomes some- 
times almost a mere mass of ruins. Often the 
bursting of a shell sets a building on fire, and 
then the dreadful effects of a conflagration are 
added to the horrors of the scene. In ancient 
sieges, on the other hand, none of these terrible 
agencies could be employed. The battering- 
rams could touch nothing but the walls and the 
outer towers, and it was comparatively very lit- 
tle injury that they could do to these. The 
javelins and arrows, and other light missiles — 
even those that were thrown from the military 
engines, if by chance they passed over the walls 
and entered the town, could do no serious mis- 
chief to the buildings there. The worst that 



1191.] Progress of the Crusade. 233 

Purifying the places of pagan worship. Eevelings of the soldiery. 

could happen from them was the wounding or 
killing of some person in the streets who might, 
just at that moment, be passing by. 

In repairing Acre, therefore, and putting it 
again in a perfect condition for defense, nothing 
but the outer walls required attention. Rich- 
ard set companies of workmen upon these, and 
before long every thing was restored as it was 
before. There were then some ceremonies to 
be performed within the town, to purify it from 
the pollution which it had sustained by having 
been in the possession of the Saracens. All 
the Christian churches particularly, and the mon- 
asteries and other religious houses, were to be 
thus restored from the desecration which they 
had undergone, and consecrated anew to the 
service of Christ. 

In the mean time, while these works and per- 
formances were going on, the soldiers gave them- 
selves up to indulgences of every kind. Great 
stores of wine were found in the place, which 
were bestowed upon the troops, and the streets, 
day and night, were filled with riotous revelings. 
The commanders themselves — the knights and 
barons — and all the other men of rank that per- 
tained to the army, fell into the same way, and 
they were very unwilling that the time should 



234 King Richard I. [1191. 

The object of the Crusades was the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. 

come when they were to leave such a place of 
security and indulgence, and take the field again 
for a march in pursuit of Saladin. 

At length, however, the time arrived when 
the march must be commenced. Richard had 
learned, by means of scouts and spies which he 
sent out, that Saladin was moving to the south- 
ward and westward — retreating, in fact, toward 
Jerusalem, which was, of course, the great point 
that he wished to defend. That, indeed, was 
the great point of attack, for the main object 
which the Crusaders proposed to themselves in 
invading Palestine was to get possession of the 
sepulchre where Christ was buried at Jerusa- 
lem. The recovery of the Holy Sepulchre was 
the watchword ; and among all the people who 
were watching the progress of the enterprise 
with so much solicitude, and also among the 
Crusaders themselves, the progress that was 
made was valued just in proportion as it tended 
to the accomplishment of this end. 

Richard set apart a sufficient number of troops 
for a garrison to hold and defend Acre, and then, 
on taking a census of the remainder of his force, 
found that lie had thirty thousand men to march 
with in pursuit of Saladin. He arranged this 
force in five divisions, and placed each under the 



1191.] Progress of the Crusade. 235 

Order of the march from Acre. Jaffa. 

command of a competent general. There were 
two very celebrated bodies of knights that oc- 
cupied positions of honor in this march. They 
were the Knights Templars and the Knights of 
St. John, or Hospitalers, the order that has been 
described in a previous chapter of this volume. 
The Templars led the van of the army, and the 
Hospitalers brought up the rear. The march 
was commenced on the twenty-second of Au- 
gust, which was not far from two months from 
the time that Acre was surrendered. 

The course which the army was to take was 
at first to follow the sea-shore toward the south- 
ward to Jaffa, a port nearly opposite to Jerusa- 
lem. It was deemed necessary to take posses- 
sion of Jaffa before going into the interior ; and, 
besides, by moving on along the coast, the ships 
and galleys containing the stores for the army 
could accompany them, and supply them abun- 
dantly, from time to time, as they might require. 
By this course, too, they would be drawing 
nearer to Jerusalem, though not directly ap- 
proaching it. 

The arrangements connected with the march 
of the army were conducted with great ceremo- 
ny and parade. The knights wore their costly 
armor, and were mounted on horses splendidly 



236 King Eichard I. [1191. 

Trumpeters. The evening proclamation in camp. 

equipped and caparisoned. In many cases the 
horses themselves were protected, like the rid- 
ers, with an armor of steel. The columns were 
preceded by trumpeters, who awakened innu- 
merable echoes from the mountains, and from the 
cliffs of the shore, with their animating and ex- 
citing music, and innumerable flags and banners, 
with the most gorgeous decorations, were wav- 
ing in the air. When the expedition halted at 
night, heralds passed through the several camps 
to the sound of trumpets, and pausing at each 
one, and giving a signal, all the soldiers in the 
camp kneeled down upon the ground, when the 
heralds proclaimed in a loud voice three times, 
God save the Holy Sepulchre, and all the 
soldiers said Amen. 

The march was commenced on the twenty- 
second of August, and it was about sixty miles 
from Acre to Jaffa. Of course, an army of 
thirty thousand men must move very slowly. 
There is so much time consumed in breaking 
up the encampment in the morning, and in form- 
ing it again at night, and in giving such a 
mighty host their rest and food in the middle 
of the day, and the men, moreover, are so loaded 
with the arms and ammunition, and with the 
necessary supplies of food and clothing which 



1191.] Progress of the Crusade. 237 

The slow march. Saladin's harassing movements. 

they have to carry, that only a very slow prog- 
ress can be made. In this case, too, the march 
was harassed by Saladin, who hovered on the 
flank of the Crusaders, and followed them all 
the way, sending down small parties from the 
mountains to attack and cut off stragglers, and 
threatening the column at every exposed point, 
so as to keep them continually on the alert. 
The necessity of being always ready to form in 
order of battle to meet the enemy, should he 
suddenly come upon them, restricted them very 
much in their motions, and made a great deal 
of manoeuvring necessary, which, of course, 
greatly increased the fatigue of the soldiers, 
and very much diminished the speed of their 
progress. 

Richard wished much to bring on a general 
battle, being confident that he should conquer 
if he could engage in it on equal terms. But 
Saladin would not give him an opportunity. 
He kept the main body of his troops shelter- 
ed among the mountains, and only advanced 
slowly, parallel with the coast, where he could 
watch and harass the movements of his ene- 
mies without corning into any general conflict 
with them. 

This state of things continued for about three 



238 King Eichaed I. [1191. 

The plain of Azotus. The order of battle. 

weeks, and then at last Richard reached Jaffa. 
The two armies manoeuvred for some time in 
the vicinity of the town, and, finally, they con- 
centrated their forces in the neighborhood of 
a plain near the sea-shore, at a place called 
Azotus, which was some miles beyond Jaffa. 
Saladin had by this time strengthened himself 
so much that he was ready for battle. He ac- 
cordingly marched on to the attack. He di- 
rected ills assault, in the first instance, on the 
wing of Richard's army which was formed of 
the French troops that were under the com- 
mand of the Duke of Burgundy. They resist- 
ed them successfully and drove them back. 
Richard watched the operation, but for a time 
took no part in it, except to make feigned ad- 
vances, from time to time, to threaten the ene- 
my, and to harass them by compelling them to 
perform numerous fatiguing evolutions. His 
soldiers, and especially the knights and barons 
in his army, were very impatient at his delay- 
ing so long to take an active and an efficient 
part in the contest. But at last, when he found 
that the Saracen troops were wearied, and were 
beginning to be thrown in a little confusion, he 
gave the signal for a charge, and rode forward 
at the head of the troop, mounted on his famous 



1191.] Progress of the Crusade. 239 

The charge of Richard's troops. To retreat is to be defeated. 

charger, and flourishing his heavy battle-axe in 
the air. 

The onset was terrible. Richard inspirited 
his whole troop by his reckless and headlong 
bravery, and by the terrible energy with which 
he gave himself to the work of slaughtering all 
who came in his way. The darts and javelins 
that were shot by the enemy glanced off from 
him without inflicting any wound, being turned 
aside by the steel armor that he wore, while 
every person that came near enough to him to 
strike him with any other weapon was felled at 
once to the ground by a blow from the ponder- 
ous battle-axe. The example which Richard 
thus set was followed by his men, and in a short 
time the Saracens began every where to give 
way. When, in the case of such a combat, one 
side begins to yield, it is all over with them. 
When they turn to retreat, they, of course, be- 
come at once defenseless, and the pursuers press 
on upon them, killing thern without mercy and 
at their pleasure, and with very little danger of 
being killed themselves. A man can fight very 
well while he is pursuing, but scarcely at all 
when he is pursued. 

It was not long before Saladin's army was 
flying in all directions, the Crusaders pressing 



240 King Richard I. [1191. 

Saladin, defeated, retires. Richard at Jaffa again. 

on upon them every where in their confusion, 
and cutting them down mercilessly in great 
numbers. The slaughter was immense. About 
seven thousand of the Saracen troops were 
slain. Among them were thirty-two of Sala- 
din's highest and best officers. As soon as the 
Saracens escaped the immediate danger, when 
the Crusaders had given over the pursuit, they 
rallied, and Saladin formed them again into 
something like order. He then commenced a 
regular and formal retreat into the interior. 
He first, however, sent detachments to all the 
country around to dismantle the towns, to de- 
stroy all stores of provisions, and to seize and 
carry away every thing of value that could be 
of any use to the conquerors. A broad extent 
of country, through which Richard would have 
to march in advancing toward Jerusalem, being 
thus laid waste, the Saracens withdrew farther 
into the interior, and there Saladin set himself 
at work to reorganize his broken army once 
more, and to prepare for new plans of resistance 
to the invaders. 

Eichard withdrew witli his army to Jaffa, 
and, taking possession of the town, he estab- 
lished himself there. 

It was now September. The season of the 



1191.] Progress of the Crusade. 241 

Sickness in the army. Excuses for delaying the march. 

year was hot and unhealthy ; and though the 
allied army had thus far been victorious, still 
there was a great deal of sickness in the camp, 
and the soldiers were much exhausted by the 
fatigue which they had endured, and by their 
exposure to the sun. Richard was desirous, 
notwithstanding this, to take the field again, 
and advance into the interior, so as to follow up 
the victory which had been gained over Saladin 
at Azotus ; but his officers, especially those of 
the French division of the army, under the com- 
mand of the Duke of Burgundy, thought it not 
safe to move forward so soon. " It would be 
better to remain a short time in Jaffa," they 
said, "to recruit the army, and to prepare for 
advancing in a more sure and efficient manner. 

"Besides," said they, "we need Jaffa for a 
military post, and it will be best to remain here 
until we shall have repaired the fortifications, 
and put the place in a good condition of de- 
fense." 

But this was only an excuse. What the 
army really desired was to enjoy repose for a 
time. They found it much more agreeable to 
live in ease and indulgence within the walls of 
a town than to march in the hot sun across so 
arid a country, loaded down as they were with 
Q 



242 Kino Richard I. [1191. 

Lingering at Jaffa. The judgment of historians. 

heavy armor, and kept constantly in a state of 
anxious and watchful suspense by the danger 
of sudden attacks from the enemy. 

Richard acceded to the wishes of the officers, 
and decided to remain for a time in JafTa. But 
they, instead of devoting themselves energetic- 
ally to making good again the fortifications of 
the town, went very languidly to the work. 
They allowed themselves and the men to spend 
their time in inaction and indulgence. In the 
mean time, Saladin had gathered his forces to- 
gether again, and was drawing fresh recruits 
every day to his standard from the interior of 
the country. He was preparing for more vig- 
orous resistance than ever. Richard has been 
strongly condemned for thus remaining inactive 
in Jaffa after the battle of Azotus. Historians, 
narrating the account of his campaign, say that 
he ought to have marched at once toward Jeru- 
salem before Saladin should have had time to 
organize any new means of resistance. But it 
is impossible for those who are at a distance 
from the scene of action in such a case, and 
who have only that partial and imperfect ac- 
count of the facts which can be obtained through 
the testimony of others, to form any reliable 
judgment on such a question. Whether it 



1191.] Progress of the Crusade. 243 

Richard's incursions from Jaffa. Reconnoitring and foraging. 

would be prudent or imprudent for a command- 
er to advance after a battle can be known, in 
general, only to those who are on the ground, 
and who have personal knowledge of all the 
circumstances of the case. 

While Richard remained in Jaffa, he made 
frequent excursions into the surrounding terri- 
tory at the head of a small troop of adventur- 
ous men who liked to accompany him. Other 
small detachments were often sent out. These 
parties went sometimes to collect forage, and 
sometimes to reconnoitre the country with a 
view of ascertaining Saladin's position and plans. 
Richard took great delight in these excursions, 
nor were they attended with any great danger. 
At the present day, going out on reconnoitring 
parties is very dangerous service indeed, for 
men wear no armor, and they are liable at any 
moment to be cut down by a Minie rifle-ball, 
fired from an unseen hand a mile away. In 
those days the case was very different. There 
were no missiles that could be thrown for a 
greater distance than a few yards, and for all 
such the heavy steel armor that the knights 
wore furnished, in general, an ample protection. 
The only serious danger to be feared was that 
of coming unwarily upon a superior party of 



244 King Eichard I. [1191. 

Richard's predatory excursions. Sir William's stratagem. 

the enemy lying in ambush to entrap the re- 
connoitrers, and in being surrounded by them. 
But Richard had so much confidence in the 
power of his horse and in his own prodigious 
personal strength that he had very little fear. 
So he scoured the country in every direction, at 
the head of a small attendant squadron, when- 
ever he pleased, considering such an excursion 
in the light of nothing more than an exciting 
morning ride. 

Of course, after going out many times on such 
excursions and coming back safely, men grad- 
ually become less cautious, and expose them- 
selves to greater and greater risks. It was so 
with Richard and his troop, and several times 
they ventured so far as to put themselves in 
very serious peril. Indeed, Richard once or 
twice very narrowly escaped being taken pris- 
oner. At one time he was saved by the gener- 
osity of one of his knights, named Sir William. 
The king and his party were surprised by a 
large party of Saracens, and nearly surrounded. 
For a moment it was uncertain whether they 
would be able to effect their retreat. In the 
midst of the fray, Sir William called out that he 
was the king, and this so far divided the atten- 
tion of the party as to confuse them somewhat, 



1191.] Progress of the Crusade. 245 

Sir William's ransom. Incident of the Knights Templars. 

and break the force and concentration of their 
attack, and thus Richard succeeded in making 
his escape. Sir William, however, was taken 
prisoner and carried to Saladin, but he was im- 
mediately liberated by Richard's paying the 
ransom that Saladin demanded for him. 

At another time word came to him suddenly 
in the town that a troop of Knights Templars 
were attacked and nearly surrounded by Sara- 
cens, and that, unless they had help immediate- 
ly, they would be all cut off. Richard imme- 
diate'/ seized his armor and began to put it 
on, and at the same time he ordered one of his 
earls to mount his horse and hurry out to the 
rescue of the Templars with all the horsemen 
that were ready, saying also that he would fol- 
low himself, with more men, as soon as he could 
put his armor on. Now the armoring of a 
knight for battle in the Middle Ages was as 
long an operation as it is at the present day for 
a lady to dress for a ball. The several pieces 
of which the armor was composed were so heavy, 
'and so complicated, moreover, in their fasten- 
ings, that they could only be put on by means 
of much aid from assistants. While Richard 
was in the midst of the process, another mes- 
senger came, saying that the danger of the Tem- 
plars was imminent. 



246 King Richard I. [1191. 

Richard's feats of prowess among the Saracens. The Troubadour?. 

" Then I must go, : ' said Richard, " as I am. 
I should be unworthy of the name of king if I 
were to abandon those whom I have promised 
to stand by and succor in every danger."' 

So lie leaped upon his horse and rode on 
alone. On arriving at the spot, he plunged into 
the thickest of the fight, and there he fought so 
furiously, and made such havoc among the Sara- 
cens with his battle-axe, that they fell back, 
and the Templars, and also the party that had 
gone out with the earl, were rescued, and made 
good their retreat to the town, leaving only on 
the field those who had fallen before Richard 
arrived. 

Many such adventures as this are recorded 
in the old histories of this campaign, and they 
were made the subjects of a great number of 
songs and ballads, written and sung by the 
Troubadours in those days in honor of the 
valiant deeds of the Crusaders. 

The armies remained in Jaffa through the 
whole of the month of September. During this 
time a sort of negotiation was opened between 
Richard and Saladin, with a view to agreeing, 
if possible, upon some terms of peace. The ob- 
ject, on the part of Saladin, in these negotia- 
tions, was probably delay, for the longer he could 



1191.] Progress of the Crusade. 247 

Negotiations for peace. Saphadin. A marriage proposed. 

continue to keep Richard in Jaffa, the stronger 
he would himself become, and the more able to 
resist Richard's intended march to Jerusalem. 
Richard consented to open these negotiations, 
not knowing but that some terms might possi- 
bly be agreed upon by which Saladin would 
consent to restore Jerusalem to the Christians, 
and thus end the war. 

The messenger whom Saladin employed in 
these negotiations was Saphadin, his brother. 
Saphadin, being provided with a safe-conduct 
for this purpose, passed back and forth between 
Jaffa and Saladin's camp, carrying the propo- 
sitions and counter - propositions to and fro. 
Saphadin was a very courteous and gentleman- 
ly man, and also a very brave soldier, and Rich- 
ard formed quite a strong friendship for him. 

A number of different plans were proposed 
in the course of the negotiation, but there seem- 
ed to arise insuperable objections against them 
all. At one time, either at this period or sub- 
sequently, when Richard returned again to the 
coast, a project was formed to settle the dispute, 
as quarrels and wars were often settled in those 
days, by a marriage. The plan was for Sala- 
din and Richard to cease their hostility to each 
other, and become friends and allies ; the con- 



248 King Eichaed I. [1191. 

King Richard offered his sister in marriage to Saphadin. 

sideration for terminating the war being, on 
Richard's side, that he would give his sister Jo- 
anna, the ex-queen of Sicily, in marriage to 
Saphadin ; and that Saladin, on his part, should 
relinquish Jerusalem to Richard. Whether it 
was that Joanna would not consent to be thus 
conveyed in a bargain to an Arab chieftain as a 
part of a price paid for a peace, or whether Sal- 
adin did not consider her majesty as a full equiv- 
alent for the surrender of Jerusalem, the plan 
fell through like all the others that had been 
proposed, and at length the negotiations were 
fully abandoned, and Richard began again to 
prepare for taking the field. 



1191.] Reverses. 249 

Feuds in the Christian army. The march in November. 



Chapter XVI. 
Reverses. 

BY this time very serious dissensions and 
difficulties had arisen in the army of the 
Crusaders. There were a great many chief- 
tains who felt very independent of each other, 
and feuds and quarrels of long standing broke 
out anew, and with more violence than ever. 
There were many different opinions, too, in re- 
spect to the course which it was now best to 
pursue. Richard, however, contrived yet to 
maintain some sort of authority, and he finally 
decided to commence his march from Jaffa. 

It was now November. The fall rains began 
to set in. The distance to Jerusalem was but 
about thirty-two miles. The army advanced 
to Ramula, which is about fifteen miles from 
Jaffa, but they endured very great hardships 
and sufferings from the extreme inclemency of 
the season. The soldiers were wet to the skin 
by drenching rains. Their provisions were 
soaked and spoiled, and their armor was rusted, 
and much of it rendored useless. When they 



250 King Richard I. [1191. 

The army weakened by disease, mutiny, and desertion. 

attempted to pitch their tents at night at Ra- 
mula, the wind tore them from their fastenings, 
and blew the canvas away, so as to deprive 
them of shelter. 

Of course, these disasters increased the dis- 
content in the army, and, by making the men 
impatient and ill-natured, increased the bitter- 
ness of their quarrels. The army finally ad- 
vanced, however, as far as Bethany, with a for- 
lorn hope of being strong enough, when they 
should arrive there, to attack Jerusalem ; but 
this hope, when the time came, Richard was 
obliged to abandon. The rain and exposure 
had brought a great deal of disease into the 
camp. The men were dying in great numbers. 
This mortality was increased by famine, for the 
stores which the army had brought with them 
were spoiled by the rain, and Saladin had so 
laid waste the country that no fresh supplies 
could be obtained. Then, in addition to this, 
the soldiers, finding their sufferings intolerable, 
and seeing no hope of relief, began to desert in 
great numbers, and Richard finally found that 
there was no alternative for him but to fall back 
ao'ain to the sea-shore. 

o 

Instead of going to Jaffa, however, he pro- 
ceeded to Ascalon. Ascalon was a larger and 



1191.] Reverses. 251 

The return to Ascalon. Rebuilding the fortifications. 

stronger city than Jaffa. At least it had been 
stronger, and its fortifications were more ex- 
tensive, though the place had been dismantled 
by Saladin before he left the coast. This town, 
as you will see by the map, is situated toward 
the southern part of Palestine, near to the con- 
fines of Egypt, and it had been a place of im- 
portance as a sort of entrepot of commerce be- 
tween Egypt and the Holy Land. Richard be- 
gan to think that it would be necessary for him 
to establish his army somewhat permanently in 
the strong places on the coast, and wait until 
he could obtain re-enforcements from Europe 
before attempting again to advance toward Je- 
rusalem. He thought it important, therefore, 
to take possession of Ascalon, and thus — Acre 
and Jaffa being already strongly garrisoned — 
the whole coast would be secure under his con- 
trol. 

Accordingly, on his retreat from Jerusalem, 
lie proceeded with a large portion of his army 
to Ascalon, and immediately commenced the 
work of repairing the walls and rebuilding the 
towers, not knowing how soon Saladin might be 
upon him. 

Indeed, Saladin and his troops had followed 
Richard's army on their reteat from Bethany, 



252 King Richard I. [1191. 

Saladin presses upon the retiring army. Skirmishing. 

and had pressed them very closely all the way. 
It was at one time quite doubtful whether they 
would succeed in making good their retreat to 
Ascalon. The Saracen horsemen hovered in 
great numbers on the rear of Richard's army, 
and made incessant skirmishing attacks upon 
them. Richard placed a strong body of the 
Knights of St. John there to keep them off. 
These knights were well armed, and they were 
brave and well-trained warriors. They beat 
back the Saracens whenever they came near. 
Still, many of the knights were killed, and 
straggling parties, from time to time, were cut 
off, and the whole army was kept in a constant 
state of suspense and excitement, during the 
whole march, by the continual danger of an at- 
tack. When, at length, they approached the 
sea-shore, and turned to the south on the way 
to Ascalon, they were a little more safe, for the 
sea defended them on one side. Still, the Sar- 
acens turned with them, and hovered about their 
left flank, which was the one that was turned 
toward the land, and harassed the inarch all the 
way. The progress of the troops was greatly 
retarded too, as well as made more fatiguing, 
by the presence of such an enemy ; for they 
were not only obliged to move more slowly 



1191.] Reverses. 253 

Contrivances of the enemy to harass the army. 

when they were advancing, but they could only 
halt at night in places which were naturally 
strong and easily to be defended, for fear of an 
assault upon their encampment in the night. 
During the night, too, notwithstanding all the 
precautions they could take to secure a strong 
and safe position, the men were continually 
roused from their slumbers by an alarm that 
the Saracens were coming upon them, when 
they would rush from their tents, and seize their 
arms, and prepare for a combat ; and then, aft- 
er a time, they would learn that the expected 
attack was only a feint made by a small body 
of the enemy just to harass them. 

It might seem, at first view, that such a war- 
fare as this would weary and exhaust the pur- 
suers as much as the pursued, but in reality it 
is not so. In the case of a night alarm, for in- 
stance, the whole camp of the Crusaders would 
be aroused from their sleep by it, and kept in a 
state of suspense for an hour or more before 
the truth could be fully ascertained, while to 
give the alarm would require only a very small 
party from the army of the Saracens, the main 
body retiring as usual to sleep, and sleeping all 
night undisturbed. 

At length Richard reached Ascalon in safety, 



254 King Richard I. [1191. 

Difficulties which the king met with in repairing Ascalon. 

and posted himself within the walls, while Sal- 
adin established his camp at a safe distance in 
the interior of the country. Of course, the first 
thing which he found was to be done, as has al- 
ready been remarked, was to repair and strength- 
en the walls, and it was evident that no time was 
to be lost in accomplishing this work. 

But, unfortunately, the character of the ma- 
terials of which Richard's army was composed 
was not such as to favor any special efficiency 
in conducting an engineering operation. All 
the knights, and a large proportion of the com- 
mon soldiers, deemed themselves gentlemen. 
They had volunteered to join the crusade from 
high and romantic notions of chivalry and re- 
ligion. They were perfectly ready, at any time, 
to fight the Saracens, and to kill or be killed, 
whichever fate the fortune of war might assign 
them ; but to bear burdens, to mix mortar, and 
to build walls, were occupations far beneath 
them ; and the only way to induce them to take 
hold of this work seems to have been for the 
knights and officers to set them the example. 

Thus, in repairing the walls of Acre, all the 
highest officers of the army, with Richard him- 
self at the head of them, took hold of the work 
with their own hands, and built away on the 



1191.] Reverses. 255 

The troops unwilling to labor. Resentment of Leopold. 

walls and towers like so many masons. Of 
course, the body of the soldiery had no excuse 
for declining the work, when even the king did 
not consider himself demeaned by it, and the 
whole army joined in making the reparations 
with great zeal. 

But such kind of zeal as this is not often 
very enduring. The men had accomplished 
this work very well at Acre, but now, in under- 
taking a second operation of the kind, their ardor 
was found to be somewhat subsided. Besides, 
they were discouraged and disheartened in some 
degree by the results of the fruitless campaign 
they had made into the interior, and worn down 
by the fatigues they had endured on their march. 
Still, the knights and nobles generally followed 
Richard's example, and worked upon the walls 
to encourage the soldiery. One, however, ab- 
solutely refused; this was Leopold, the Arch- 
duke of Austria, whose flag Richard had pulled 
down from one of the towers in Acre, and tram- 
pled upon as it lay on the ground. The arch- 
duke had never forgiven this insult. 

Indeed, this rudeness on the part of Richard 
was not a solitary instance of his enmity. It 
was only a new step taken in an old quarrel. 
Richard and the duke had been on very ill 



256 King Richaed I. [1191. 

The present which Richard made to Berengaria. 

terms before. The reader will perhaps recol- 
lect that when Richard was at Cyprus he made 
captive a young princess, the daughter of the 
king, and that he made a present of her, as a 
handmaid and companion, to Queen Berengaria. 
Berengaria and Joanna, when they left Cyprus, 
brought the young princess with them, and 
when they were established with the king in the 
palace at Acre, she remained with them. She 
was treated kindly, it is true, and was made a 
member of the family, but still she was a pris- 
oner. Such captives were greatly prized in 
those days as presents for ladies of high rank, 
who kept them as pets, just as they would, at 
the present day, a beautiful Canary bird or a 
favorite pony. They often made intimate and 
familiar companions of them, and dressed them 
with great elegance, and surrounded them with 
every luxury. Still, notwithstanding this gild- 
ing of their chains, the poor captives usually 
pined away their lives in sorrow, mourning con- 
tinually to be restored to their father and mother, 
and to their own proper home. 

Now it happened that the Archduke of Aus- 
tria was a relative, by marriage, of the King of 
Cyprus, and the princess was his niece; conse- 
quently, when she arrived at the camp before 



1191.] Reverses. 257 

Intercession of Leopold. Richard's exasperation. 

Acre as a captive in the hands of the queen, 
as might naturally have been expected, he took 
a great interest in her case. He wished to have 
her released and restored to her father, and he 
interceded with Richard in her behalf. But 
Richard would not release her. He was not 
willing to take her away from Berengaria. The 
archduke was angry with the king for this re- 
fusal, and a quarrel ensued ; and it was partly 
in consequence of this quarrel, or, rather, of the 
exasperation of mind that was produced by it, 
that Richard would not allow the archduke's 
banner to float from the towers of Acre when 
the city fell into their hands. 

The archduke felt very keenly the indignity 
which Richard thus offered him, and though at 
the time he had no power to revenge it, he re- 
membered it, and remained long in a gloomy 
and resentful frame of mind. And now, while 
Richard was endeavoring to encourage and stim- 
ulate the soldiers to work on the walls, by in- 
ducing the knights and barons to join him in 
setting the example, Leopold refused. He said 
that he was neither the son of a carpenter nor 
of a mason, that he should go to work like a 
laborer to build walls. Richard was enraged 
at this answer, and, as the story goes, flew at 
R 



258 King Richard I. [1191. 

Richard expels Leopold from Ascalon. The work goes on. 

Leopold in his passion, and struck and kicked 
him. He also immediately turned the arch- 
duke and all his vassals out of the town, declar- 
ing that they should not share the protection of 
walls that they would not help to build ; so 
they were obliged to encamp without, in com- 
pany with that portion of the army that could 
not be accommodated within the walls. 

But, notwithstanding the bad example set 
thus by the archduke, far the greater portion of 
the knights, and barons, and high officers of the 
army joined very heartily in the work of build- 
ing the walls. Even the bishops, and abbots, 
and otlier monks, as well as the military nobles, 
took hold of the work with great zeal, and the 
repairs went on much more rapidly than could 
have been expected. During all this time the 
army kept their communications open with the 
other towns along the coast — with Jaffa, and 
Acre, and other strongholds, so that at length 
the whole shore was well fortified, and secure 
in their possession. 

Saladin, during all this time, had distributed 
his troops in various encampments along the 
line parallel with the coast, and at some dis- 
tance from it, and for some weeks the two ar- 
mies remained, in a great degree, quiet in their 



1191.] Reverses. 259 

Waiting for re-enforcements. The Abbot of Clairvaux. 

several positions. The Crusaders were too 
much diminished in numbers by the privations 
and the sickness which they had undergone, as 
well as by the losses they had suffered in bat- 
tle, and too much weakened by their internal 
dissensions, to go out of their strongholds to at- 
tack Saladin, while, on the other hand, they 
were too well protected by the walls of the 
towns to which they had retreated for Saladin 
to attack them. Both sides were waiting for 
re-enforcements. Saladin was indeed continu- 
ally receiving accessions to his army from the 
interior, and Richard was expecting them from 
Europe. He sent to a distinguished ecclesias- 
tic, named the Abbot of Clairvaux, who had a 
high reputation in Europe, and enjoyed great in- 
fluence at many of the principal courts. In his 
letter to the abbot, he requested him to visit 
the different courts, and urge upon the princes 
and the people of the different countries the ne- 
cessity that they should come to the rescue of 
the Christian cause in the Holy Land. Unless 
they were willing, he said, that all hope of re- 
gaining possession of the Holy Land should be 
abandoned, they must come with large re-en- 
forcements, and that, too, without any delay. 
During the period of delay occasioned by 



260 King Richard I. [1191. 

The truce. Courtesy of enemies when not at contest. Presents. 

these circumstances, there was a sort of truce 
established between the two armies, and the 
knights on each side mingled together frequent- 
ly on very friendly terms. Indeed, it was the 
pride and glory of soldiers in this chivalrous 
age to treat each other, when not in actual con- 
flict, in a very polite and courteous manner, as 
if they were not animated by any personal re- 
sentment against their enemies, but only by a 
spirit of fidelity to the prince who commanded 
them, or to the cause in which they were en- 
gaged. Accordingly, when, for any reason, the 
war was for a time suspended, the combatants 
became immediately the best friends in the 
world, and actually vied with each other to see 
which should evince the most generous courtesy 
toward their opponents. 

On the present occasion they often made vis- 
its to each other, and they arranged tourna- 
ments and other military celebrations which 
were attended by the knights and chieftains on 
both sides. Richard and Saladin often sent 
each other handsome presents. At one time 
when Richard was sick, Saladin sent him a 
quantity of delicious fruit from Damascus. The 
Damascus gardens have been renowned in every 
age for the peaches, pears, figs, and other fruits 



1191.] Reverses. 261 

Saladin's present to Richard. The Christian army discouraged. 

which they produce, and especially for a pecul- 
iar plum, famous through all the East. Sala- 
din sent a supply of this fruit to Richard when 
he heard that he was sick, and accompanied his 
present with very earnest and, perhaps, very 
sincere inquiries in respect to the condition of 
the patient, and expressions of his wishes for 
his recovery. 

The disposition of the two commanders to 
live on friendly terms with each other at this 
time was increased by the hope which Richard 
entertained that he might, by some possibility, 
come to an amicable agreement with Salad in in 
respect to Jerusalem, and thus bring the war to 
an end. He was beginning to be thoroughly 
discontented with his situation, and with every 
thing pertaining to the war. Nothing since the 
first capture of Acre had really gone well. His 
army had been repulsed in its attempt to ad- 
vance into the interior, and was now hemmed 
in by the enemy on every side, and shut up in 
a few towns on the sea-coast. The men under 
his command had been greatly diminished in 
numbers, and, though sheltered from the enemy, 
the force that remained was gradually wasting 
away from the effects of exposure to the climate 
and from fatigue. There was no prospect of 



262 King Kichakd I. [1191. 

King Richard uneasy respecting the state of England. 

any immediate re-enforcements arriving from 
Europe, and no hope, without them, of being able 
to take the field successfully against Saladin. 

Besides all this, Richard was very uneasy in 
respect to the state of affairs in his own domin- 
ions, in England and in Normandy. He dis- 
trusted the promises that Philip had made, and 
was very anxious lest he might, when he ar- 
rived in France, take advantage of Richard's 
absence, and, under some pretext or other, in- 
vade some of his provinces. From England he 
was continually receiving very unfavorable tid- 
ings. His mother Eleanora, to whom he had 
committed some general oversight of his inter- 
ests during his absence, was beginning to Avrite 
him alarming letters in respect to certain in- 
trigues which were going on in England, and 
which threatened to deprive him of his English 
kingdom altogether. She urged him to return 
as soon as possible. Richard was exceedingly 
anxious to comply with this recommendation, 
but he could not abandon his army in the con- 
dition in which it then was, nor could he hon- 
orably withdraw it without having previously 
come to some agreement with Saladin by which 
the Holy Sepulchre could be secured to the pos- 
session of the Christians. 



1191.] Reverses. 263 

Selfishness, not generosity, was the secret motive. 

This being the state of the case, he had every 
motive for pressing the negotiations, and for cul- 
tivating, while they were in progress, the most 
friendly relations possible with Saladin, and for 
persevering in pressing them as long as the 
least possible hope remained. Accordingly, 
during all this time .Richard treated Saladin 
with the greatest courtesy. He sent him many 
presents, and paid him many polite attentions. 
All this display of urbanity toward each other, 
on the part of these ferocious and bloodthirsty 
men, has been actually attributed by mankind 
to the instinctive nobleness and generosity of 
the spirit of chivalry ; but, in reality, as is in- 
deed too often the case with the pretended no- 
bleness and generosity of rude and violent men, 
a cunning and far-seeing selfishness lay at the 
bottom of it. 

In the course of these negotiations, Richard 
declared to Saladin that all which the Chris- 
tians desired was the possession of Jerusalem 
and the restoration of the true cross, and he 
said that surely some terms could be devised on 
which Saladin could concede those two points. 
But Saladin replied that Jerusalem was as sa- 
cred a place in the eyes of Mussulmans, and as 
dear to them, as it was to the Christians, and 



264 King Richabd I. [1191. 

Saladin's reason for retaining Jerusalem. A political marriage. 

that they could on no account give it up. In 
respect to the true cross, the Christians, he said, 
if they could obtain it, would worship it in an 
idolatrous manner, as they did their other relics ; 
and as the law of the Prophet in the Koran for- 
bade idolatry, they could not conscientiously 
give it up. "By so doing," said he, "we should 
be accessories to the sin." 

It was in consequence of the insuperable ob- 
jections which arose against an absolute sur- 
render of Jerusalem to the Christians that the 
negotiations took the turn which led to the pro- 
posal of a marriage between the ex-Queen Jo- 
anna and Saphadin ; for, when Richard found 
that no treaty was possible that would give him 
full possession of Jerusalem, and the letters 
which he received from England made more and 
more urgent the necessity that he should return, 
he conceived the plan of a sort of joint occu- 
pancy of the Holy City by Mussulmans and 
Christians together. This was to be effected 
by means of the proposed marriage. The mar- 
riage was to be the token and pledge of a sur- 
rendering, on botli sides, of the bitter fanaticism 
which had hitherto animated them, and of their 
determination henceforth to live in peace, not- 
withstanding their religious differences. If this 



1191.] Reverses. 265 

The compromise was opposed by the priests. 



£3 



state of feeling could be once established, there 
would be no difficulty, it was thought, in arran 
ing some sort of mixed government for Jerusa 
lem that would secure access to the holy places 
by both Mussulmans and Christians, and ac- 
cemplish the ends of the war to the satisfaction 
of all. 

It was said that Richard proposed this plan, 
and that both Saladin and Saphadin evinced a 
willingness to accede to it, but that it was de- 
feated by the influence of the priests on both 
sides. The imams among the Mussulmans, 
and the bishops and monks in Richard's army, 
were equally shocked at this plan of making a 
"compromise of principle," as they considered 
it, and forming a compact between evil and good. 
The men of each party devoutly believed that 
the cause which their side espoused was the 
cause of God, and that that of the other was the 
cause of Satan, and neither could tolerate for a 
moment any proposal for a union, or an alliance 
of any kind, between elements so utterly antag- 
onistical. And it was in vain, as both com- 
manders knew full well, to attempt to carry 
such an arrangement into effect against the con- 
viction of the priests ; for they had, on both sides, 
so great an influence over the masses of the 



266 King Eichard I. [1191. 

The scheme of joint occupancy of Jerusalem abandoned. 

people that, without their approval, or at least 
their acquiescence, nothing could be done. 

So the plan of an alliance and union between 
the Christians and the Mohammedans, with a 
view to a joint occupancy and guardianship of 
the holy places in Jerusalem was finally aban- 
doned, and Joanna gave up the hope, or was re- 
leased from the fear, as the case may have been, 
of having a Saracen for a husband. 



1191.] The old Man, etc. 267 

The conquest of Jerusalem by Godfrey of Bouillon. 



Chapter XVII. 
The old Man of the Mountains. 



o 



NE of the greatest sources of trouble and 
difficulty which Richard experienced in 
managing his heterogeneous mass of followers 
was the quarrel which has been already alluded 
to between the two knights who claimed the 
right to be the King of Jerusalem, whenever 
possession of that city should by any means be 
obtained. The reader will recollect, perhaps, 
that it has already been stated that a very re- 
nowned Crusader, named Godfrey of Bouillon, 
had penetrated, about a hundred years before 
this time, into the interior of the Holy Land, at 
the head of a large army, and there had taken 
possession of Jerusalem ; that the earls, and 
barons, and other prominent knights in his 
army had chosen him king of the city, and fix- 
ed the crown and the royal title upon him and 
his descendants forever ; that when Jerusalem 
was itself, after a time, lost, the title still re- 
mained in Godfrey's family, and that it de- 



268 King Eichard I. [1191. 

History of the contest for the title of King of Jerusalem. 

scended to a princess named Sibylla ; that a 
knight named Guy of Lusignan married Sibyl- 
la, and then claimed the title of King of Jeru- 
salem in the right of his wife ; that, in process 
of time, Sibylla died, and then one party claim- 
ed that the rights of her husband, Guy of Lu- 
signan, ceased, since he held them only through 
his wife, and that thenceforward the title and 
the crown vested in Isabella, her sister, who 
was the next heir ; that Isabella, however, was 
married to a man who was too feeble and timid 
to assert his claims ; that, consequently, a more 
bold and unscrupulous knight, named Conrad 
of Montferrat, seized her and carried her off, 
and afterward procured a divorce for her from 
her former husband, and married her himself; 
and that then a great quarrel arose between 
Guy of Lusignan, the husband of Sibylla, and 
Conrad of Montferrat, the husband of Isabella. 
This quarrel had now been raging a long time, 
and all attempts to settle it or to compromise it 
had proved wholly unavailing. 

The ground which Guy and his friends and 
adherents took was, that while they admitted 
that Guy held the title of King of Jerusalem in 
the right of his wife, and that his wife was now 
dead, still, being once invested with the crown, 



1191.] The old Man, etc. 269 

A delicate question. The Crusaders' motives 

it was his for life, and lie could not justly be 
deprived of it. After his death it might descend 
very properly to the next heir, but during his 
lifetime it vested in him. 

Conrad, on the other hand, and the friends 
and adherents who espoused his cause, argued 
that, since Guy had no claim whatever except 
what came in and through his wife, of course, 
when his wife died, his possession ought to 
terminate. If Sibylla had had children, the 
crown would have descended to one of them ; 
but she being without direct heirs, it passed, of 
right, to Isabella, her sister, and that Isabella's 
husband was entitled to claim and take posses- 
sion of it in her name. 

It is obvious that this was a very nice and 
delicate question, and it would have been a very 
difficult one for a company of gay and reckless 
soldiers like the Crusaders to settle if they had 
attempted to look at it simply as a question of 
law and right ; but the Crusaders seldom troub- 
led themselves with examining legal arguments, 
and still less with seeking for and applying 
principles of justice and right in taking sides in 
the contests that arose among them. The ques- 
tion for each man to consider in such cases was 
simply, "Which side is it most for my inter- 



270 King Richard I. [1191. 

How Eichard and Philip took sides in the quarrel. 

ests and those of my party that we should es- 
pouse ? We will take that ;" or, " Which side 
are my rivals and enemies, or those of their 
party, going to take ? We will take the other." 
It was by such considerations as these that 
the different princes, and nobles, and orders of 
knights in the army decided how they would 
range themselves on this great question. As 
has already been explained, Richard took up 
the cause of Guy, who claimed through the de- 
ceased Sibylla. He had been induced to do so, 
not by any convictions which he had formed in 
respect to the merits of the case, but because 
Guy had come to him while he was in Cyprus, 
and had made such proposals there in respect to 
a conjunction with him that Richard deemed it 
for his interest to accept them. In a similar 
way, Conrad had waited upon Philip as soon as 
he arrived before Acre, and had induced him to 
espouse his, Conrad's, side. If there were two 
orders of knights in the army, or two bodies of 
soldiery, that were at ill-will with each other 
through rivalry, or jealousy, or former quarrels, 
they would always separate on this question of 
the King of Jerusalem; and just as certainly as 
one of them showed a disposition to take the 
side of Guy, the other would immediately go 



1191.] The old Man, etc. 271 

The reason of the importance of the quarrel. 

over to that of Conrad, and then these old and 
half- smothered contentions would break out 
anew. 

Thus this difficulty was not only a serious 
quarrel itself, but it was the means of reviving 
and giving new force and intensity to a vast 
number of other quarrels. 

It may seem strange that a question like this, 
which related, as it would appear, to only an 
empty title, should have been deemed so im- 
portant ; but, in reality, there was something 
more than the mere title at issue. Although, 
for the time being, the Christians were excluded 
from Jerusalem, they were alt continually hop- 
ing to be very soon restored to the possession 
of it, and then the king of the city would be- 
come a very important personage, not only in 
his own estimation and in that of the army of 
Crusaders, but in that of all Christendom. No 
one knew but that in a few months Jerusalem 
might come into their hands, either by being 
retaken through force of arms, or by being ceded 
in some way through Richard's negotiations 
with Saladin; and, of course, the greater the 
probability was that this event would happen, 
the more important the issue of the quarrel be- 
came, and the more angry with each other, and 



272 King Richakd I. [1191. 

The French maintain Conrad's cause. Richard's bargain with Guy. 

excited, were the parties to it. Tims Richard 
found that all his plans for getting possession 
of Jerusalem were grievously impeded by these 
dissensions ; for the nearer he came, at any 
time, to the realization of his hopes, the more 
completely were his efforts to secure the end 
paralyzed by the increased violence and bitter- 
ness of the quarrel that reigned among his fol- 
lowers. 

The principal supporters of the cause of Con- 
rad were the French, and they formed so nu- 
merous and powerful a portion of the army, 
and they had, withal, so great an influence over 
other bodies of troops from different parts of 
Europe, that Richard could not successfully re- 
sist them and maintain Guy's claims, and he 
finally concluded to give up, or to pretend to 
give up, the contest. 

So he made an arrangement with Guy to re- 
linquish his claims on condition of his receiving 
the kingdom of Cyprus instead, the unhappy 
Isaac, the true king of that island, shut up in 
the Syrian dungeon to which Richard had con- 
signed him, being in no condition to resist this 
disposition of his dominions. Richard then 
agreed that Conrad should be acknowledged as 
King of Jerusalem, and, to seal and settle the 



1191.] The old Man, etc. 273 

Richard's reasons for acceding- to Conrad's cause. 

question, it was determined that he should be 
crowned forthwith. 

It was supposed at the time that one reason 
which induced Richard to give up Guy and 
adopt Conrad as the future sovereign of the 
Holy City was, that Conrad was a far more able 
warrior, and a more influential and powerful 
man than Guy, and altogether a more suitable 
person to be left in command of the army in 
case of Richard's return to England, provided, 
in the mean time, Jerusalem should be taken ; 
and, moreover, he was much more likely to suc- 
ceed as a leader of the troops in a march against 
the city in case Richard were to leave before 
the conquest should be effected. It turned out, 
however, in the end, as will be seen in the se- 
quel, that the views with which Richard adopt- 
ed this plan were of a very different character. 

Conrad was already the King of Tyre. The 
position which he thus held was, in fact, one of 
the elements of his power and influence among 
the Crusaders. It was determined that his cor- 
onation as King of Jerusalem should take place 
at Tyre, and, accordingly, as soon as the ar- 
rangement of the question had been fully and 
finally agreed upon, all parties proceeded to 
Tyre, and there commenced at once the prepa- 
S 



274 King 


Richard I. [1191. 


The coronation of Conrad. 


His assassination. 



rations for a magnificent coronation. All the 
principal chieftains and dignitaries of the army 
that could be spared from the other posts along 
the coast went to Tyre to be present at the cor- 
onation, the whole army, with the exception 
of a few malcontents, being filled with joy and 
satisfaction that the question which had so long- 
distracted their councils and paralyzed their ef- 
forts was now at length finally disposed of. 

These bright prospects were all, however, 
suddenly blighted and destroyed by an unex- 
pected event, which struck every one with con- 
sternation, and put all things back into a worse 
condition than before. As Conrad was passing 
along the streets of Tyre one day, two men 
rushed upon him, and with small daggers, which 
they plunged into his side, slew him. They 
were so sudden in their movement that all was 
over before any one could come to Conrad's res- 
cue, but the men who committed the deed were 
seized and put to the torture. They belonged 
to a tribe of Arabs called Hassassins.* This 
appellation was taken from the Arabic name of 
the dagger, which was the only armor that they 
wore. Of course, witli such a weapon as this, 

* The English word assassins comes from the name of 
these men. 



1191.] The old Man, etc. 275 

The Hassassins. The Old Man of the Mountains and his followers. 

they could do nothing effectual in a regular bat- 
tle with their enemies. Nor was this their 
plan. They never came out and met their en- 
emies in battle. They lived among the mount- 
ains in a place by themselves, under the com- 
mand of a famous chieftain, whom they called 
the Ancient, and sometimes the Lord of the 
Mountains. The Christians called him the Old 
Man of the Mountains, and under this name 
he and his band of followers acquired great 
fame. 

They were, in fact, not mucli more than a 
regularly-organized band of robbers and mur- 
derers. The men were extremely wily and 
adroit ; they could adopt any disguise, and 
penetrate without suspicion wherever they chose 
to go. They were trained, too, to obey, in the 
most unhesitating and implicit manner, any or- 
ders whatever that the chieftain gave them. 
Sometimes they were sent out to rob ; some- 
times to murder an individual enemy, who had, 
in some way or other, excited the anger of the 
chief. Thus, if any leader of an armed force 
attempted to attack them, or if any officer of 
government adopted any measures to bring 
them to justice, they would not openly resist, 
but would fly to their dens and fastnesses, and 



276 King Kichaed I. [1191. 

The reckless spirit of the Hassas~ins. Seizure of the murderers. 

conceal themselves there, and then soon after- 
ward the chieftain would send out his emissa- 
ries, dressed in a suitable disguise, and with 
their little hassassins under their robes, to watch 
an opportunity and kill the offender. It is true 
they were usually, in such cases, at once seized, 
and were often put to death with horrible tor- 
tures; but so great was their enthusiasm in the 
cause of their chief, and so high the exaltation 
of spirit to which the point of honor carried 
them, that they feared nothing, and were never 
known to shrink from the discharge of what they 
deemed their duty. 

The stabs which the two Hassassins gave to 
Conrad were so effectual that he fell dead upon 
the spot. The people that were near rushed to 
his assistance, and while some gathered round 
the bleeding body, and endeavored to stanch the 
wounds, others seized the murderers and bore 
them off to the castle. They would have pulled 
them to pieces by the way if they had not de- 
sired to reserve them for the torture. 

The torture is, of course, in every respect, a 
wretched way of eliciting evidence. So far as 
it is efficacious at all in eliciting declarations, it 
tends to lead the sufferer, in thinking what he 
shall say, to consider, not what is the truth, 



1191.] The old Man, etc. 277 

The torture as a means of eliciting evidence. Conflicting accounts. 

but what is most likely to satisfy his torment- 
ors and make them release him. Accordingly, 
men under torture say any thing which they 
suppose their questioners wish to hear. At one 
moment it is one thing, and the next it is anoth- 
er, and the men who conduct the examination 
can usually report from it any result they please. 
A story gained great credit in the army, and 
especially among the French portion of it, im- 
mediately after the examination of these men, 
that they said that they had "been hired by 
Richard himself to kill Conrad, and this story 
produced every where the greatest excitement 
and indignation. On the other hand, the friends 
of Richard declared that the Hassassins had 
stated that they were sent by their chieftain, 
the Old Man of the Mountain, and that the 
cause was a quarrel that had long been stand- 
ing between Conrad and him. It is true that 
there had been such a quarrel, and, consequent- 
ly, that the Old Man would be, doubtless, very 
willing that Conrad should be killed. Indeed, 
it is probable that, if Richard was really the 
original instigator of the murder, he would have 
made the arrangement for it with the Old Man, 
and not directly with the subordinates. It was, 
in fact, a part of the regular and settled busi- 



278 King Richard I. [1191. 

Uncertainty respecting the motive of Conrad'* murder. 

ness of this tribe to commit murders for pay. 
The chieftain might have the more readily un- 
dertaken this case from having already a quar- 
rel of his own with Conrad on hand. It was 
never fully ascertained what the true state of 
the case was. The Arab historians maintain 
that it was Richard's work. The English writ- 
ers, on the contrary-, throw the blame on the Old 
Man. The English writers maintain, moreover, 
that the deed was one which such a man as 
Richard was very little likely to perform. He 
was, it is true, they say, a very rude and vio- 
lent man — daring, reckless, and often unjust, 
and even cruel — but he was not treacherous. 
What he did, he did in the open day ; and he 
was wholly incapable of such a deed as pre- 
tending deceitfully that he would accede to 
Conrad's claims with a view of throwing him 
off his guard, and then putting him to death by 
means of hired murderers. 

This reasoning will seem satisfactory to us 
or otherwise, according to the views we like to 
entertain in respect to the genuineness of the 
sense of generosity and honor which is so much 
boasted of as a characteristic of the spirit of 
chivalry. Some persons place great reliance 
upon it, and think that so gallant and courageous 



1191.] The old Man, etc. 279 

False and spurious honor. General opinion of Richard's conduct. 

a knight as Richard must have been incapable 
of any such deed as a secret assassination. 
Others place very little reliance upon it. They 
think that the generosity and nobleness of 
mind to which this class of men make such 
great pretension is chiefly a matter of outside 
show and parade, and that, when it serves their 
purpose, they are generally ready to resort to 
any covert and dishonest means which will help 
them to accomplish their ends, however truly 
dishonorable such means may be, provided they 
can conceal their agency in them. For my 
part, I am strongly inclined to the latter opin- 
ion, and to believe that there is nothing in the 
human heart that we can really rely upon in re- 
spect to human conduct and character but sound 
and consistent moral principle. 

At any rate, it is unfortunate for Richard's 
cause that among those who were around him 
at the time, and who knew his character best, 
the prevailing opinion was against him. It was 
generally believed in the army that he was re- 
ally the secret author of Conrad's death. The 
event produced a prodigious excitement through- 
out the camp. When the news reached Eu- 
rope, it awakened a very general indignation 
there, especially among those who were inclined 



280 King Richard I. [1191. 

Suspicions of Philip. The events consequent on Conrad's death. 

to be hostile to Richard. Philip, the King of 
France, professed to he alarmed for his own 
safety. " He has employed murderers to kill 
Conrad, my friend and ally," said he, " and the 
next thing will be that he will send some of 
the Old Man of the Mountain's emissaries to 
thrust their daggers into me." 

So he organized an extra guard to watch at 
the gates of his palace, and to attend him when- 
ever he went out, and gave them special instruc- 
tions to watch against the approach of any sus- 
picious strangers. The Emperor of Germany 
too, and the Archduke of Austria, whom Rich- 
ard had before made his enemies, were filled 
with rage and resentment against him, the ef- 
fects of which he subsequently felt very se- 
verely. 

In the mean time, the excitement in the camp 
immediately on the death of Conrad became 
very strong, and it led to serious disturbances. 
The French troops rose in arms and attempted 
to seize Tyre. Isabella, Conrad's wife, in whose 
name Conrad had held the title to the crown of 
Jerusalem, fled to the citadel, and fortified her- 
self there with such troops as adhered to her. 
The camp was in confusion, and there was im- 
minent danger that the two parties into which 



1191.] The old Man, etc. 281 

Appearance of Count Henry. He becomes king of Jerusalem. 



the army was divided would come to open war. 
At this juncture, a certain nephew of Richard's, 
Count Henry of Champagne, made his appear- 
ance. He persuaded the people of Tyre to put 
him in command of the town ; and supported 
as he was by Richard's influence, and by the 
acquiescence of Isabella, he succeeded in restor- 
ing something like order. Immediately after- 
ward he proposed to Isabella that she should 
marry him. She accepted his proposal, and so 
he became King of Jerusalem in her name. 

The French party, and those who had taken 
the side of Conrad in the former quarrel, were 
greatly exasperated, but as the case now stood 
they were helpless. They had always main- 
tained that Isabella was the true sovereign, and 
it was through her right to the succession, after 
Sibylla's death, that they had claimed the crown 
for Conrad ; and now, since Conrad was dead, 
and Isabella had married Count Henry, they 
could not, with any consistency, deny that the 
new husband was fully entitled to succeed the 
old. They might resent the murder of Conrad 
as much as they pleased, but it was evident 
that nothing- would bring him back to life, and 
nothing could prevent Count Henry being now 
universally regarded as the King of Jerusalem. 



282 King Eichard I. [1191. 



The question at rest. Dissatisfaction. The king's proclamation. 

So, after venting for a time a great many loud 
but fruitless complaints, the aggrieved parties 
allowed their resentment to subside, and all ac- 
quiesced in acknowledging Henry as King of 
Jerusalem. 

Besides these difficulties, a great deal of un- 
easiness and discontent arose from rumors that 
Richard was intending to abandon Palestine, 
and return to Normandy and England, thus 
leaving the army without any responsible head. 
The troops knew very well that whatever sem- 
blance of authority and subordination then ex- 
isted was clue to the presence of Richard, whose 
high rank and personal qualities as a warrior 
gave him great power over his followers, not- 
withstanding their many causes of complaint 
against him. They knew, too, that his depart- 
ure would be the signal of universal disorder, 
and would lead to the total dissolution of the 
army. The complaints and the clamor which 
arose from this cause became so great in all the 
different towns and fortresses along the coast, 
that, to appease them, Richard issued a procla- 
mation statins that he had no intention of leav- 
ing the army, but that it was his fixed purpose 
to remain in Palestine at least another year. 



1192.] The Battle of Jaffa. 283 

The battle of Jaffa. Richard gives the army employment. 



Chapter XVIII. 
The Battle of Jaffa. 

WHEN, at last, the state of Richard's af- 
fairs had been reduced, by the causes 
mentioned in the last chapter, to a very low ebb, 
he suddenly succeeded in greatly improving 
them by a battle. This battle is known in his- 
tory as the battle of Jaffa. It was fought in 
the early part of the summer of 1192. 

As soon as he had issued his proclamation 
declaring to his soldiers that he would positive- 
ly remain in Palestine for a year, he began to 
make preparations for another campaign. The 
best way, he thought, to prevent the army from 
wasting away its energies in internal conflicts 
between the different divisions of it was to give 
those energies employment against the common 
enemy ; so he put every thing in motion for a 
new march into the interior. He Mt garrisons 
in the cities of the coast, sufficient, as he judged, 
to protect them from any force which the Sara- 
cens were likely to send against them in his 
absence, and forming the remainder in order of 



284 King Eichard I. [1192. 

Uncomfortable news from England. Richard's resolution. 

march, he set out from his head-quarters at 
Jaffa, and began to advance once more toward 
Jerusalem. 

Of course, this movement revived, in some 
degree, the spirit of his army, and awakened in 
them new hopes. Still, Richard himself was 
extremely uneasy, and his mind was filled with 
solicitude and anxiety. Messengers were con- 
tinually coming from Europe with intelligence 
which was growing more and more alarming at 
every arrival. His brother John, they said, in 
England, was forming schemes to take posses- 
sion of the kingdom in his own name. In 
France, Philip was invading his Norman prov- 
inces, and was evidently preparing for still 
greater aggression. He must return soon, his 
mother wrote him, or he would lose all. Of 
course, he was in a great rage at what he called 
the treachery of Philip and John, and burned to 
get back and make them feel his vengeance. 
But he was so tied up with the embarrassments 
and difficulties that he was surrounded with in 
the Holy Land, that lie thought it absolutely 
necessary to make a desperate effort to strike 
at least one decisive blow before lie could pos- 
sibly leave his army, and it was in this des- 
perate state of mind that lie set out upon his 
march. It was near the end of May. 



1192.] The Battle of Jaffa. 285 

Account of the country through which the army marched. 

The army advanced for several days. They 
met with not much direct opposition from the 
Saracens, for Saladin had withdrawn to Jerusa- 
lem, and was employed in strengthening the 
fortifications there, and making every thing ready 
for Richard's approach. But the difficulties 
which they encountered from other causes, and 
the sufferings of the army in consequence of 
them, were terrible. The country was dry and 
barren, and the weather hot and unhealthy. 
The soldiers fell sick in great numbers, and 
those that were well suffered extremely from 
thirst and other privations incident to a march 
of many days through such a country in such a 
season. There were no trees or shelter of any 
kind to protect them from the scorching rays 
of the sun, and scarcely any water to be found 
to quench their thirst. The streams were very 
few, and all the wells that could be found were 
soon drunk dry. Then there was great diffi- 
culty in respect to provisions. A sufficient 
supply for so many thousands could not be 
brought up from the coast, and all that the coun- 
try itself had produced — which was, in fact, very 
little — was carried away by the Saracens as 
Richard advanced. Thus the army found it- 
self environed with great difficulties, and before 



286 King Richard I. [1192. 

The approach to Jerusalem. Hebron. The prize in sight. 

many days it was reduced to a condition of 
actual distress. 

The expedition succeeded, however, in ad- 
vancing to the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem. 
Early in June they encamped at Hebron, which 
is about six miles from Jerusalem, toward the 
south. Here they halted ; and Richard re- 
mained here some days, weighed down with per- 
plexity and distress, and extremely harassed in 
mind, being wholly unable to decide what was 
best to be done. 

From a hill in the neighborhood of Hebron 
Jerusalem was in sight. There lay the prize 
which he had so long been striving to obtain, 
all before him, and yet he was utterly power- 
less to take it. For this he had been manceu- 
vring and planning for years. For this he had 
exhausted all the resources of his empire, and 
had put to imminent hazard all the rights and 
interests of the crown. For this he had left his 
native land, and had brought on, by a voyage 
of three thousand miles, all the fleets and ar- 
mies of his kingdom ; and now, with the prize 
before him, and all Europe looking on to sec 
him grasp it, his hand had become powerless, 
and he must turn back, and go away as he 
came. 



1192.] The Battle of Jaffa. 287 

Saladin strongly established in Jerusalem. Richard's self-reproaches. 

Richard saw at once that it must be so ; for 
while, on the one hand, his army was well-nigh 
exhausted, and was reduced to a state of such 
privation and distress as to make it nearly help- 
less, Saladin was established in Jerusalem al- 
most impregnably. While the divisions of 
Richard's army had been quarreling with each 
other on the sea-coast, he had been strengthen- 
ing the Avails and other defenses of the city, un- 
til they were now more formidable than ever. 
Richard received information, too, that all the 
wells and cisterns of water around the city had 
been destroyed by the Saracens, so that, if they 
were to advance to the walls and commence a 
siege, they would soon be obliged to raise it, or 
perish there with thirst. So great was Rich- 
ard's distress of mind under these circumstances, 
that it is said, when he was conducted to the 
hill from which Jerusalem was to be seen, he 
could not bear to look at it. He held his shield 
up before his eyes to shut out the sight of it, 
and said that he was not worthy to look upon 
the city, since he had shown himself unable to 
redeem it. 

There was a council of war held to consider 
what it was best to do. It was a council of 
perplexity and despair. Nobody could tell what 



288 King Eichaed I. [1192. 

A new expedient. The proposed march upon Cairo. 

it was best to do. To go back was disgrace. 
To go forward was destruction ; and it was im- 
possible for them to remain where they were. 

In his desperation Richard conceived of a new 
plan, that of marching southward and seizing 
Cairo. The Saracens derived almost all the 
stores of provisions for the use of their armies 
from Cairo, and Hebron was on the road to it. 
The way was open for Richard's army to march 
in that direction, and, by carrying this plan into 
execution, they would, at least, get something 
to cat. Besides, it would be a mode of with- 
drawing from Jerusalem that would not be quite 
a retreat. Still, these reasons were wholly in- 
sufficient to justify such a measure, and it is 
not probable that Richard seriously entertained 
the plan. It is much more likely that he pro- 
posed the idea of a march upon Cairo as a 
means of amusing the minds of his knights and 
soldiers, and diminishing the extreme disap- 
pointment and vexation which they must have 
felt in relinquishing the plan of an attack upon 
Jerusalem, and that he intended, after proceed- 
ing a short distance on the way toward Egypt, 
to find some pretext for turning down toward 
the sea-shore, and re-establishing himself in his 
cities on the coast. 



1192.] The Battle of Jaffa. 289 

The hopeless condition of the army. Saladin at Jaffa. 

At any rate, whether it was the original plan 
or not, such was the result. As soon as the 
encampment was broken up, and the army com- 
menced its march, and the troops learned that 
the hope of recovering the Holy Sepulchre, and 
all the other lofty aspirations and desires which 
had led them so far, and through so many hard- 
ships and dangers, were now to be abandoned, 
they were first enraged, and then they sank into 
a condition of utter recklessness and despair. 
All discipline was at an end. No one seemed 
now to care what became of the expedition or 
of them selves. The French soldiers, under the 
Duke of Burgundy, revolted openly, and de- 
clared they would go no farther. The troops 
from Germany joined them. So Richard gave 
up the plan, or seemed to give it up, and gave 
orders to march to Acre ; and there, at last, the 
army arrived in a state of almost utter dissolu-* 
tion. 

In a short time the news came to them that 
Saladin had followed them down, and had seized 
upon Jaffa. He had taken the town, and shut 
up the garrison in the citadel, whither they had 
fled for safety ; and tidings came that, unless 
Richard very soon came to the rescue, the cita- 
del would be compelled to surrender. 
T 



290 King Richard I. [1192. 

Richard's measures to succor Jaffa. His fleet arrives there. 

Richard immediately ordered that all the 
troops that were in a condition to march should 
set out immediately, to proceed down the coast 
from Acre to Jaffa. He himself, he said, would 
hasten on by sea, for the wind was fair, and a 
part of his force, all that he had ships enough 
in readiness to convey, could go much quicker 
by water than by land, besides the advantage 
of being fresh on their arrival for an attack on 
the enemy. So he assembled as many ships as 
could be got ready, and embarked a select body 
of troops on board of them. There were seven 
of the ships. He took the command of one of 
them himself. The Duke of Burgundy, with the 
French troops under his command, refused to go. 

The little fleet set sail immediately and ran 
down the coast very rapidly. When they came 
to Jaffa they found that the town was really in 
possession of the Saracens, and that large bod- 
ies of the enemy were assembled on the shore 
to prevent the landing of Richard's forces. This 
array appeared so formidable that all the knights 
and officers on board the ships urged Richard 
not to attempt to attack them, but to wait un^ 
til the body of the army should arrive by land. 

But Richard was desperate and reckless. 
He declared that he would land ; and he utter- 



1192.] The Battle of Jaffa. 291 

Landing. The onset upon the Saracens. Jaffa retaken. 

ed an awful imprecation against those who 
should hesitate to follow him. He "brought the 
boats up as near the shore as possible, and then, 
with his battle-axe in his right hand, and his 
shield hung about his neck, so as to have his 
left hand at liberty, he leaped into the water, 
calling upon the rest to come on. They all fol- 
lowed his example, and, as soon as they gained 
the shore, they made a dreadful onset upon the 
Saracens that were gathered on the beach. 
The Saracens were driven back. Richard made 
such havoc among them with his battle-axe, 
and the men following him were made so reso- 
lute and reckless by his example, that the ranks 
of the enemy were broken through, and they 
fled in all directions. 

Richard and his men then rushed on to the 
gates of the town, and almost before the Sara- 
cens who were in possession of them could re- 
cover from their surprise, the gates were seized, 
those who had been stationed at them were 
slain or driven away, and then Richard and his 
troops, rushing through, closed them, and the 
Saracens that were within the town were shut 
in. They were soon all overpowered and slain, 
and thus the possession of the town was re- 
covered. 



292 King Richard I. [1192. 

Both sides awaiting assistance. The Saracens defeated. 

But this was not tlie end, as Richard and his 
men knew full well. Though they had pos- 
session of the town itself, they were surround- 
ed by a great army of Saracens, that were hov- 
ering around them on the plain, and rapidly in- 
creasing in numbers ; for Saladin had sent or- 
ders to the interior directing all possible assist- 
ance to be sent to him. Eichard himself, on 
the other hand, was hourly expecting the arrival 
of the main body of his troops by land. 

They arrived the next day, and then came on 
the great contest. Richard's troops, on their ar- 
rival, attacked the Saracens from without, while 
he himself, issuing from the gates, assaulted 
them from the side next the town. The Cru- 
saders fought with the utmost desperation. 
They knew very well that it was the crisis of 
their fate. To lose that battle was to lose all. 
The Saracens, on the other hand, were not un- 
der any such urgent pressure. If overpowered, 
they could retire again to the mountains, and be 
as secure as before. 

They were overpowered. The battle was 
fought long and obstinately, but at length Eich- 
ard was victorious, and the Saracens were driven 
off the ground. 

Various accounts are given by the different 



1192.] The Battle of Jaffa. 295 

The story of Saladin' s present of horses to his enemy. 

writers who have narrated the history of this 
crusade, of a present of a horse made by Sala- 
din to Richard in the course of the war, and the 
incident has been often commented upon as an 
evidence of the high and generous sentiments 
which animated the combatants in this terrible 
crusade in their personal feelings toward each 
other. One of the stories makes the case an 
incident of this battle. The Saracens, flying 
from the field, came to Saladin, who was watch- 
ing the contest, and, in conversation with him, 
they pointed out Richard, who was standing 
among his knights on a small rising ground. 

"Why, he is on foot!" exclaimed Saladin. 
Richard was on foot. His favorite charger, 
Favelle, was killed under him that morning, 
and as he had come from Acre in haste and by 
sea, there was no other horse at hand to supply 
his place. 

Saladin immediately said that that was not 
as it should be. "The King of England," said 
he, "should not fight on foot like a common 
soldier." He immediately sent over to Richard, 
with a flag of truce, two splendid horses. King- 
Richard accepted the present, and during the 
remainder of the day lie fought on one of the 
horses which his enemy had thus sent him. 



296 King Richard I. [1192. 

The romantic story oft:. s gift. 

One account adds a romantic embellishment 
ds story by saying that Saladin sent only 
one horse at rirst — the one that he supposed 
most worthy ol being sent as a gift from one 
sovereign to another : but that Richard, before 
mounting him himself, directed one of his 
knights to mount him and give him trial. The 
knight found the horse wholly unmanageable. 
The animal took the bits between his teeth and 
galloped furiously back to the camp of Saladin, 
carrying his rider with him. a helpless prisoner. 
Saladin was exceedingly chagrined at this re- 
sult: lie was afraid Richard might suppose that 
he sent him an unruly horse from a treacherous 

- en to do him some iniurv. He according! v 
received the knight who had been borne so on- 
willingly to his camp in the most courteous 
manner, and providing another horse for him, 

ismissed him with presents. He also sent 

a second horse to Richard, more beautiful than 
: : rst. an.". :.used Richard to 

be assured that he might rely upon as perfeet- 
lv well trained. 



1192.] The Truce. 297 

Richard and Saladin agree upon a three years' truce. 



Chapter XIX. 
The Teuce. 

THE result of the battle of Jaffa greatly 
strengthened and improved the condition 
of the Crusaders, and in the same proportion it 
weakened and discouraged Saladin and the Sar- 
acens. But, after all, instead of giving to either 
party the predominance, it only placed them 
more nearly on a footing of equality than before. 
It began to be pretty plain that neither of the 
contending parties was strong enough, or would 
soon be likely to be strong enough to accom- 
plish its purposes. Richard could not take Je- 
rusalem from Saladin, nor could Saladin drive 
Richard out of the Holy Land. 

In this state of things, it was finally agreed 
upon between Richard and Saladin that a truce 
should be made. The negotiations for this 
truce were protracted through several weeks, 
and the summer was gone before it was con- 
cluded. It was a truce for a long period, the 
duration of it being more than three years. 
Still, it Avas strictly a truce, not a peace, since 
a termination was assigned to it. 



298 King Richard I. [1192. 

Richard's reason for this course. The treat}-. The coast. 

Richard preferred to make a truce rather than 
a peace for the sake of appearances at home. 
He did not wish that it should be understood 
that, in leaving the Holy Land and returning 
home, he abandoned all design of recovering the 
Holy Sepulchre. He allowed three years, on 
the supposition that that would be time enough 
for him to return home, to set every thing in 
order in his dominions, to organize a new cru- 
sade on a larger scale, and to come back again. 
In the mean time, he reserved, by a stipulation 
of the treaty, the right to occupy, by such por- 
tion of his army as he should leave behind, the 
portion of territory on the coast which he had 
conquered, and which he then held, with the ex- 
ception of one of the cities, which one he was 
to give up. The terms of the treaty, in detail, 
were as follows : 

STIPULATIONS OF THE TREATY. 

1. The three great cities of Tyre, Acre, and 
Jaffa, with all the smaller towns and castles on 
the coast between them, with the territory ad- 
joining, were to be left in the possession of the 
Christians, and Saladin bound himself that they 
should not be attacked or molested in any way 
there during the continuance of the truce. 



1192.] The Truce. 299 

Ascalon to be dismantled. Pilgrims to Jerusalem protected. 

2. Ascalon, which lay farther to the south, 
and was not necessary for the uses of Richard's 
army, was to be given up ; but Saladin was to 
pay, on receiving it, the estimated cost which 
Richard had incurred in rebuilding the fortifica- 
tions. Saladin, however, was not to occupy it 
himself as a fortified town. It was to be so far 
dismantled as only to be used as a commercial 
city. 

3. The Christians bound themselves to re- 
main within their territory in peace, to make no 
excursions from it for warlike purposes into the 
interior, nor in any manner to injure or oppress 
the inhabitants of the surrounding country. 

4. All persons who might desire to go to Je- 
rusalem in a peaceful way as visitors or pil- 
grims, whether they were knights or soldiers 
belonging to the army, or actual pilgrims arriv- 
ing at Acre from the different Christian coun- 
tries of Europe, were to be allowed to pass free- 
ly to and fro, and Saladin bound himself to 
protect them from all harm. 

5. The truce thus agreed upon was to con- 
tinue in force three years, three months, three 
weeks, three days, and three hours ; and at the 
end of that time, each party was released from 
all obligations arising under the treaty, and ei- 



300 King Richard I. [1192. 

Events consequent upon the truce. Visiting the Holy City. 

tlier was at liberty immediately to resume the 
war. 



The signing of the treaty was the signal for 
general rejoicing in all divisions of the army. 
One of the first fruits of it was that the knights 
and soldiers all immediately began to form par- 
ties for visiting Jerusalem. It was obvious that 
all could not go at once ; and Richard told the 
French soldiers who were under the Duke of 
Burgundy that he did not think they were en- 
titled to go at all. They had done nothing, he 
said, to help on the war, but every thing to em- 
barrass and impede it, and now he thought that 
they did not deserve to enjoy any share of the 
fruits of- it. 

Three large parties were formed and they 
proceeded, one after the other, to visit the Holy 
City. There was some difficulty in respect to 
the first party, and it required all Saladin's au- 
thority to protect them from insult or injury by 
the Saracen people. The animosity and anger 
which they had been so long cherishing against 
these invaders of their country had not had time 
to subside, and many of them were very eager 
to avenge the wrongs which they had suffered. 
The friends and relatives of the hostages whom 



1192.] The Truce. 301 

Saladin restraining the Saracens from revenge. 

Richard had massacred at Acre were particular- 
ly excited. They came in a body to Saladin's 
palace, and, falling on their knees before him, 
begged and implored him to allow them to take 
their revenge on the inhuman murderers, now 
that they had them in their power ; but Saladin 
would not listen to them a moment. He re- 
fused their prayer in the most absolute and pos- 
itive manner, and he took very effectual meas- 
ures for protecting the party of Christians dur- 
ing the whole duration of their visit. 

The question being thus settled that the 
Christian visitors to Jerusalem were to be pro- 
tected, the excitement among the people grad- 
ually subsided ; and, indeed, before long, the 
current of feeling inclined the other way, so 
that, when the second party arrived, they were 
received with great kindness. Perhaps the first 
party had taken care to conduct themselves in 
such a manner during their visit, and in going 
and returning, as to conciliate the good-will of 
their enemies. At any rate, after their visit 
there was no difficulty, and many in the camp, 
who had been too distrustful of Saracenic faith 
to venture with them, now began to join the 
other parties that were forming, for all had a 
great curiosity to see the city for the sake of 



302 King Eichaed I. [1192. 

The visit of the bishop to Jerusalem. 



which they had encountered so many dangers 
and toils. 

With the third party a bishop ventured to 
go. It was far more dangerous for a high dig- 
nitary of the Christian Church to join such an 
expedition than for a knight or a common sol- 
dier, both because such a man was a more ob- 
noxious object of Mohammedan fanaticism, and 
thus more likely, perhaps, to be attacked, and 
also because, in case of an attack, being unarm- 
ed and defenseless, he would be unable to pro- 
tect himself, and be less able even to act effi- 
ciently in making his escape than a military 
man, who, as such, was accustomed to all sorts 
of surprises and frays. 

The bishop, however, experienced no diffi- 
culty. On the contrary, he was received with 
marks of great distinction. Saladin made spe- 
cial arrangements to do him honor. He invited 
him to his palace, and there treated him with 
great respect, and held a long conversation with 
him. In the course of the conversation Sala- 
din desired to know what was commonly said 
of him in the Christian camp. 

" What is the common opinion in your 
army," he asked, " in respect to Richard and to 
me?" 



1192.] The Truce. 303 

Saladin's just opinion of King Richai'd. 

He wished to know which was regarded as 
the greatest hero. 

" My king," replied the bishop, " is regarded 
the first of all men living, both in regard to his 
valorous deeds and to the generosity of his char- 
acter. That I can not deny. But your fame 
also is very exalted among us ; and it is the 
universal opinion in our army that if you were 
only converted to Christianity, there would not 
be in the world two such princes as Richard 
and you." 

In the course of further conversation Saladin 
admitted that Richard was a great hero, and 
said that he had a great admiration for him. 

"But then," he added, " he does wrong, and 
acts very unwisely, in exposing himself so reck- 
lessly to personal danger, when there is no suf- 
ficient end in view to justify it. To act thus 
evinces rashness and recklessness rather than 
true courage. For myself, I prefer the reputa- 
tion of wisdom and prudence rather than that 
of mere blind and thoughtless daring." 

The bishop, in his conversation with Saladin, 
represented to him that it was necessary for the 
comfort of the pilgrims who should from time 
to time visit Jerusalem that there should be 
some public establishment to receive and enter- 



304 King Richard I. [1192. 

The institution for the entertainment of pilgrims. 

tain them, and he asked the sultan's permis- 
sion to found such institutions. Saladin ac- 
ceded to this request, and measures were imme- 
diately adopted by the bishop to carry the ar- 
rangement into effect. 

Richard himself did not visit Jerusalem. The 
reason he assigned for this was that he was 
sick at the time. Perhaps the real reason was 
that he could not endure the humiliation of pay- 
ing a visit, by the mere permission of an enemy, 
to the city which he had so long set his heart 
upon entering triumphantly as a conqueror. 



1192.] Departure, etc. 305 

Richard's reasons for returning home. 



Chapter XX. 
The Departure from Palestine. 

ONE of the chief objects which Richard had 
in view in concluding the truce with Sala- 
din was to be able to have an honorable pretext 
for leaving the Holy Land and setting out on his 
return to England. He had received many let- 
ters from his mother urging him to come, and 
giving him alarming accounts of the state of 
things both in England and Normandy. 

In England, the reader will perhaps recol- 
lect that Richard, when he set out on the Cru- 
sade, had appointed his brother John regent, in 
connection with his mother Eleanora, but that 
he had also, in order to raise money, appointed 
several noblemen of high standing and influence 
to offices of responsibility, which they were to 
exercise, in a great measure, independent of 
John. And, not content with appointing a 
suitable number of these officers, he multiplied 
them unnecessarily, and in some instances con- 
veyed the same jurisdiction, as it were, to dif- 
ferent persons, thus virtually selling the same 
U 



306 King Richard I. [1192. 

Causes of internal dissension in England and Normandy. 

office to two different men. Of course, this was 
not done openly and avowedly. The transac- 
tions were more or less covered up and con- 
cealed under different disguises. For example, 
after selling the post of chief justiciary, which 
was an office of great power and emolument, to 
one nobleman, and receiving as much money for 
it as the nobleman was willing to pay, he after- 
ward appointed other noblemen as assistant 
justiciaries, exacting, of course, a large sum of 
money from each of them, and granting them, 
in consideration of it, much the same powers as 
he had bestowed upon the chief justiciary. Of 
course, such a proceeding as this could only re- 
sult in continual contentions and quarrels among 
the appointees, to break out as soon as Richard 
should be gone. But the king cared little for 
that, so long as he could get the money. 

The quarrels did break out immediately after 
Richard sailed. There were various parties to 
them. There were Eleanora and John, each 
claiming to be the regent. Then there were 
two powerful noblemen, both maintaining that 
they had been invested with the supreme power 
by virtue of the offices which they held. The 
name of one of them was Longchamp. He con- 
trived to place himself, for a time, quite at the 



1192.] Departure, etc. 307 

Longchamp' s disguise. His escape from England. 

head of affairs, and the whole country was dis- 
tracted by the wars which were waged between 
him and- his partisans and the partisans of 
John. Longchamp was at last defeated, and 
was obliged to fly from the kingdom in dis- 
guise. He was found one day by some ftsheiv 
men's wives, on the beach near Dover, in the 
disguise of an old woman, with a roll of cloth 
under his arm, and a yard-stick in his hand. 
He was waiting for a boat which was to take 
him across the Channel into France. He dis- 
guised himself in that way that he might not 
be known, and when seen from behind the met- 
amorphosis was almost complete. The women, 
however, observed something suspicious in the 
appearance of the figure, and so contrived to 
come nearer and get a peep under the bonnet, 
and there they saw the black beard and whis- 
kers of a man. 

Notwithstanding this discovery, Longchamp 
succeeded in making his escape. 

As to Normandy, Richard's interests were in 
still greater danger than in England. King 
Philip had taken the most solemn oaths before 
he left the Holy Land, by which he bound him- 
self not to molest any of Richard's dominions, 
or to take any steps hostile to him, while he — 



308 King Richard I. [1192. 



Philip's oath broken. Pretext for invading Normandy. 

that is, Richard — remained away ; and that if 
he should have any cause of quarrel against 
him, he would abstain from all attempts to en- 
force his rights until at least six months after 
Richard's return. It was only on condition of 
this agreement that Richard would consent to 
remain in Palestine in command of the Crusade, 
and allow Philip to return. 

But, notwithstanding this solemn agreement, 
and all the oaths by which it was confirmed, 
no sooner was Philip safe in France than he 
commenced operations against Richard's domin- 
ions. He began to make arrangements for an 
invasion of some of Richard's territories in Nor- 
mandy, under pretext of taking possession again 
of Alice's dower, which it was agreed, by the 
treaty made at Messina, should be restored to 
him. But it had also been agreed at that treaty 
that the time for the restoration of the dowry 
should be after Richard's return, so that the 
plans of invasion which Philip was now form- 
ing involved clearly a very gross breach of 
faith, committed without any pretense or justi- 
fication whatever. This instance, and multi- 
tudes of others like it to be found in the histo- 
ries of those times, show how little there was 
that was genuine and reliable in the lofty sense 



1192.] Departure, etc. 309 

Proposed marriage of John and Alice. 

of honor often so highly lauded as one of the 
characteristics of chivalry. 

In justice, however, to all concerned, it must 
be stated that Philip's knights and nobles re- 
monstrated so earnestly against this breach of 
faith, that Philip was compelled to give up his 
plan, and to content himself in his operations 
against Richard with secret intrigues instead 
of open war. As he knew that John was en- 
deavoring to supplant Richard in his kingdom, 
he sent to him and proposed to join him in this 
plan, and to help him carry it into execution ; 
and he offered him the hand of Alice, the prin- 
cess whom Richard had discarded, to seal and, 
secure the alliance. John was quite pleased 
with this proposal ; and information of these in- 
trigues, more or less definite, came to Richard 
in Palestine about the time of the battle of Jaf- 
fa, from Eleanora, who contrived in some way 
to find out what was going on. The tidings 
threw Richard into a fever of anxiety to leave 
Palestine and return home. 

It was about the first of October that Rich- 
ard set sail from Acre on his return, with a 
small squadron containing his immediate at- 
tendants. He himself embarked in a war-ship. 
The queens, taking with them the captive prin- 



310 King Eichakd I. [1192. 

Richard's return unannounced. Sailing from Palestine. 

cess of Cyprus and the other members of their 
family, went as they came, in a vessel specially 
arranged for them, and under the care of their 
old protector, Stephen of Turnham. The queens 
embarked first in their vessel and sailed away. 
Richard followed soon afterward. His plan 
was to leave the coast as quietly and in as pri- 
vate a manner as possible. If it were to be un- 
derstood in France and England that he was 
on his return, he did not know what plans might 
be formed to intercept him. So he kept his de- 
parture as much as possible a secret, and the 
more completely to carry out this design, he 
gave up for the voyage all his royal style and 
pretensions, and dressed himself as a simple 
knight. 

The vessels slipped away from the coast, one 
after another, in the evening, in a manner to at- 
tract as little attention as possible. They made 
but little progress during the night. In the 
morning the shore was still in view, though fast 
disappearing. Richard gazed upon it as he 
stood on the deck of his galley, and then took 
leave of it by stretching out his hands and ex- 
claiming, 

" Most holy land, farewell ! I commend 
thee to God's keeping and care. May He give 



1192.] Departure, etc. 311 

Richard's apostrophe to the Holy Land. 

me life and health to return and rescue thee 
from the hands of the infidel." 

The eifect of this apostrophe on the by-stand- 
ers, and on those to whom the by-standers re- 
ported it, was excellent, and it was probably 
for the sake of this effect that Richard uttered it. 



312 King Eichard I. [1192. 

The returning Crusaders met by a storm. 



Chapter XXI. 
Eichard made Captive. 

IT was now late in the season, and the au- 
tumnal gales had begun to blow. It was 
but a very short time after the vessels left the 
port before so severe a storm came on that the 
fleet was dispersed, and many of the vessels 
were driven upon the neighboring coasts and 
destroyed. The Crusaders that had been left 
in Acre and Jaffa were rather pleased at this 
than otherwise. They had been indignant at 
Richard and the knights who were with him for 
having left them, to return home, and they said 
now tiiat the storm was a judgment from Heav- 
en against the men on board the vessels for 
abandoning their work, and going away from 
ihe Holy Land, and leaving the tomb and the 
cross of Christ unredeemed. Some of the ships, 
it is said, were thrown on the coasts of Africa, 
and the seamen and knights, as fast as they 
escaped to the shore, were seized and made 
slaves. 

Richard's ship, and also the one in which the 



1192.] ElCHARD MADE CAPTIVE. 313 

Richard's sudden change of course. His route homeward. 

queens were embarked, being stronger and bet- 
ter manned than the others, weathered the gale. 
After it was over, the queens' vessel steered 
for Sicily, where, in due time, they arrived in 
safety. 

Richard did not intend to trust himself to go 
to any place where he was known. According- 
ly, as soon as he found himself fairly separated 
from all the other vessels, he suddenly changed 
his course, and turned northward toward the 
mouth of the Adriatic Sea. He landed at the 
island of Corfu.* Here he dismissed his ship, 
and took three small galleys instead, to go up to 
the head of the Adriatic Sea, and thence to 
make his way homeward by land through the 
heart of Germany. 

He probably thought that this was the safest 
and best course that he could take. He did 
not dare to go through France for fear of Phil- 
ip. To go all the way by sea, which would re- 
quire him to sail out through the Straits of 
Gibraltar into the Atlantic, would require al- 
together too long and dangerous a voyage for 
so late a season of the year. The only alterna- 
tive left was to attempt to pass through Ger- 
many ; and, as the German powers were lios- 
* For the situation of this island, see the map on page 14. 



314 King Richard I. [1192. 

King Richard traveling in disguise of a pilgrim. 

tile to him, it was not safe for him to undertake 
this unless he went in disguise. 

So he sailed in the three galleys which he 
procured in Corfu to the head of the Adriatic 
Sea, and landed at a place called Zara. Here 
he put on the dress of a pilgrim. He had suf- 
fered his hair and beard to grow long, and this, 
with the flowing robes of his pilgrim's dress, 
and the crosier which he bore in his hand, com- 
pleted his disguise. 

But, though he might make himself look like 
a pilgrim, lie could not act like one. He was 
well provided with money, and his mode of 
spending it, though it might have been, perhaps, 
very sparing for a king, was very lavish for a 
pilgrim ; and the people, as he passed along, 
wondered who the party of strangers could be. 
Partly to account for the comparative ease and 
comfort with which he traveled, Richard pre- 
tended that he was a merchant, and, though 
making his pilgrimage on foot, was by no means 
poor. 

Richard knew very well that he was incur- 
ring a great risk in attempting to pass through 
Germany in this way, for the country was full 
of his foes. The Emperor of Germany was his 
special enemy, on account of his having sup- 



1192.] Richard made Captive. 315 

Richard's enemies in Germany. Fancied security. 

ported Tancred's cause in Sicily, the emperor 
himself, as the husband of the Lady Constance, 
having been designated by the former King of 
Sicily as his successor. Richard's route led, 
too, through the dominions of the Archduke of 
Austria, whom he had quarreled with and in- 
censed so bitterly in the Holy Land. Besides 
this, there were various chieftains in that part 
of the country, relatives of Conrad of Montfer- 
rat, whom every body believed that Richard had 
caused to be murdered. 

Richard was thus passing through a country 
full of enemies, and he might naturally be sup- 
posed to feel some anxiety about the result ; 
but, instead of proceeding cautiously, and watch- 
ing against the dangers that beset him, he went 
on quite at his ease, believing that his good for- 
tune would carry him safely through. 

He went on for some days, traveling by lone- 
ly roads through the mountains, until at length 
he approached a large town. The governor of 
the town was a man named Maynard, a near 
relative of Conrad, and it seems that in some 
way or other he had learned that Richard was 
returning to England, and had reason to sup- 
pose that he might endeavor to pass that way. 
Richard did not think it prudent to attempt to 



316 King Richard I. [1192. 

Richard solicits a passport. Maynard's answer. The alarm given. 

go through the town without a passport, so he 
sent forward a page whom he had in his party 
to get one. He gave the page a very valuable 
ruby ring to present to the governor, directing 
him to say that it was a present from a pilgrim 
merchant, who, Avith a priest and a few other at- 
tendants, was traveling through the country, and 
wished for permission to go through his town. 

The governor took the ring, and after exam- 
ining it attentively and observing its value, he 
said to the page, 

" This is not the present of a pilgrim, but of 
a prince. Tell your master that I know who 
he is. lie is Richard, King of England. Nev- 
ertheless, he may come and go in peace." 

Richard was very much alarmed when the 
page brought back the message. That very 
night he procured horses for himself and one 
or two others, and drove on as fast as he could 
go, leaving the rest of the party behind. The 
next day those that were left were all taken 
prisoners, and the news was noised abroad over 
the country that King Richard was passing 
through in disguise, and a large reward was 
offered by the government for his apprehension. 
Of course, now every body was on the watch 
for him. 



1192.] RlCHARD TAKEN CAPTIVE. 317 

King Richard's flight through Germany. 

The king, however, succeeded in avoiding ob- 
servation and going on some distance farther, 
until at length, at a certain town where he stop- 
ped, he was seen by a knight who had known 
him in Normandy. The knight at once recog- 
nized him, but would not betray him. On the 
contrary, he concealed him for the night, and 
provided for him a fresh horse the next day. 
This horse was a fleet one, so that Richard 
could gallop away upon him and make his es- 
cape, in case of any sudden surprise. Here 
Richard dismissed all his remaining attendants 
except his page, and they two set out together. 

They traveled three days and three nights, 
pursuing the most retired roads that they could 
find, and not entering any house during all that 
time. The only rest that they got was by halt- 
ing at lonely places by the road side, in the for- 
ests, or among the mountains. In these places 
Richard would remain concealed, while the boy 
went to a village, if there was any village near, 
to buy food. He generally got very little, and 
sometimes none at all. The horse ate what- 
ever he could find. Thus, at the end of the 
three days, they were all nearly starved. 

Besides this, they had lost their way, and 
were now drawing near to the great city of Vi- 



318 King Richard I. [1192. 

Richard concealed near Vienna. His messenger. 

enna, the most dangerous place for Richard to 
approach in all the land. He was, however, 
exhausted with hunger and fatigue, and from 
these and other causes he fell sick, so that he 
could proceed no farther. So he went into a 
small village near the town, and sent the boy 
in to the market to buy something to eat, and 
also to procure some other comforts which he 
greatly needed. The people in the town ob- 
served the peculiar dress of the boy, and his for- 
eign air, and their attention was still more ex- 
cited by noticing how plentifully he was sup- 
plied with money. They asked him who he 
was. He said he was the servant of a foreign 
merchant who was traveling through the coun- 
try, and who had been taken sick near by. 

The people seemed satisfied with this ex- 
planation, and so they let the boy go. 

Richard was so exhausted and so sick that 
he could not travel again immediately, and so 
he had occasion, in a day or two, to send the 
boy into town again. This continued for some 
days, and the curiosity of the people became 
more and more awakened. At last they ob- 
served about the page some articles of dress 
such as were only worn by attendants upon 
kings. It is surprising that Richard should 



1192.] Richard taken Captive. 319 

Torturing the messenger. The king a captive. 

have been so thoughtless as to have allowed 
him to wear them. But such w T as his charac- 
ter. The people finally seized the boy, and the 
authorities ordered him to be whipped to make 
him tell who he was. The boy bore the pain 
very heroically, but at length they threatened 
to put him to the torture, and, among other 
things, to cut out his tongue, if he did not tell. 
He was so terrified by this that at last he con- 
fessed the truth and told them where they might 
find the king. 

A band of soldiers was immediately sent to 
seize him. The story is that Richard, at the 
time when the soldiers arrived, was in the kitch- 
en turning the spit to roast the dinner. After 
surrounding the house to prevent the possibil- 
ity of an escape, the soldiers demanded at the 
door if King Richard was there. The man 
answered, "No, not unless the Templar was he 
who was turning the spit in the kitchen." So 
the soldiers went in to see. The leader ex- 
claimed, "Yes, that is he: take him!" But 
Richard seized his sword, and, rushing to a po- 
sition where he could defend himself, declared 
to the soldiers that he would not surrender to 
any but their chief. So the soldiers, deeming 
it desirable to take him alive, paused until they 



320 King Richard I. [1192. 

The archduke imprisons Richard in Tiemsteign. 

could send for the archduke. The archduke 
had left the Holy Land and returned home some 
time before. Richard, however, did not prob- 
ably know that he was passing through his do- 
minions. 

When the archduke came, Richard, knowing 
that resistance would be of no avail, delivered 
up his sword and became a prisoner. 

" You are very fortunate," said Leopold. "In 
becoming my prisoner, you ought to consider 
yourself as having fallen into the hands of a de- 
liverer rather than an enemy. If you had been 
taken by any of Conrad's friends, who are hunt- 
ing for you every where, you would have been 
instantly torn to pieces, they are so indignant 
against you." 

When the archduke had thus secured Rich- 
ard, he sent him, for safe keeping, to a castle in 
the country belonging to one of his barons, and 
gave notice to the emperor of what had oc- 
curred. The name of the castle in which Rich- 
ard was confined was Tiernsteisrn. 

As soon as the emperor heard that Richard 
was taken he was overjoyed. He immediately 
sent to Leopold, the archduke, and claimed the 
prisoner as his. 

" You can not rightfully hold him," said he. 



! 1 1 




llpl 1 

X 



1193.] Richard taken Captive. 323 

The emperor buys the prisoner. 



"A duke can not presume to imprison a king; 
that duty belongs to an emperor. ? " 

But the archduke was not willing to give 
Richard up. A negotiation was, however, 
opened, and finally he consented to sell his 
prisoner for a large sum of money. The em- 
peror took him away, and what he did with him 
for a long time nobody knew. 

In the mean while, during the period occu- 
pied by the voyage of Richard up the Adriatic, 
by his long and slow journey by land, and by 
the time of his imprisonment in Tiernsteign, 
the winter had passed away, and it was now 
the spring of 1193. 



324 King Richard I. [1193. 



Conjectures of Richard's friends. Queen Berengaria in Rome. 



Chapter XXII. 
The Return to England. 

DURING all this time the people of En- 
gland were patiently waiting for Richard's 
return, and wondering what had become of him. 
They knew that he had sailed from Palestine 
in October, and various were the conjectures as 
to his fate. Some thought that he had been 
shipwrecked ; others, that he had fallen into 
the hands of the Moors ; but all was uncertain- 
ty, for no tidings had been heard of him since 
he sailed from Acre. Berengaria had arrived 
safely at Messina, and after remaining there a 
little time she proceeded on her journey, under 
the care of Stephen, as far as Rome, veiy anx- 
ious all the time about her husband. Here she 
stopped, not daring to go any farther. She 
felt safe in Rome, under the protection of the 
Pope. 

The emperor attempted to keep Richard's 
imprisonment a secret. On removing him from 
Tiernsteign, he shut him up in one of his own 
castles on the Danube named Durenstein. Here 



1193.] Return to England. 325 

Richard in prison. He is discovered by Blondel. 

the king was closely imprisoned. He did not, 
however, yield to any depression of spirits in 
view of his hard fate, but spent his time in 
composing and singing songs, and in drinking 
and carousing with the people of the castle. 
Here he remained during the spring and sum- 
mer of 1193, and all the world were wondering 
what had become of him. 

At length rumors began gradually to circu- 
late in respect to him among the neighboring 
countries, and the conduct of the emperor, in 
seizing and imprisoning Jiim, was very gener- 
ally condemned. How the intelligence first 
reached England is not precisely known. One 
story is, that a celebrated Troubadour, named 
Blondel, who had known Richard in Palestine, 
was traveling through Germany, and in his 
journey he passed along the road in front of the 
castle where Richard was confined. As he went 
he was singing one of his songs. Richard knew 
the song, and so, when the Troubadour had fin- 
ished a stanza, he sang the next one through 
the bars of his prison window. Blondel recog- 
nized the voice, and instantly understood that 
Richard had been made a prisoner. He, how- 
ever, said nothing, but went on, and immediate- 
ly took measures to make known in England 
what he had learned. 



326 King Richard I. [1193. 

Berengaria's distress at the loss of her husband. 

Another account is, that the emperor himself 
wrote to Philip, King of France, informing him 
of the King of England's imprisonment in one 
of his castles, and that some person betrayed a 
copy of this letter to Richard's friends in En- 
gland. 

It is said that Berengaria received the first 
intimation in respect to Richard's fate by see- 
ing a belt of jewels offered for sale in Rome 
which she knew he had had about his person 
when he left Acre. She made all the inquiry 
that she could in respect to the belt, but she 
could only learn that Richard must be some- 
where in Germany. It was a relief to her mind 
to find that he was alive, but she was greatly 
distressed to think that he was probably a pris- 
oner, and she implored the Pope to interpose his 
aid and procure his release. The Pope did in- 
terpose. He immediately excommunicated Le- 
opold for having seized Richard and imprison- 
ed him, and he threatened to excommunicate 
the emperor himself if he did not release him. 

In the mean time, the tidings in respect to 
Richard's situation produced a great excitement 
throughout England. John was glad to hear 
it, and he hoped most devoutly that his brother 
would never be released. He immediately be- 



1193.] Return to England. 327 

The people of England sympathize with Richard. 

gan to take measures, in concert with Philip, to 
secure the crown to himself. The people, on 
the other hand, were very indignant against the 
Emperor of Germany, and every one was eager 
to take some efficient measures to secure the 
king's release. A great meeting was called of 
the barons, the bishops, and all the great of- 
ficers of the realm, at Oxford, where, when they 
had assembled, they renewed their oaths of al- 
legiance to their sovereign, and then appointed 
a delegation, consisting of two abbots, to go and 
visit the king, and confer with him in respect 
to what was best to be done. They chose two 
ecclesiastics for their messengers, thinking that 
they would be more likely to be allowed to go 
and come without molestation, than knights or 
barons, or any other military men. 

The abbots proceeded to Germany, and there 
the first interview which they had with Rich- 
ard was on the road, as the emperor was taking 
him to the capital in order to bring him before 
a great assembly of the empire, called the Diet, 
for the purpose of trial. 

Richard was overjoyed to see his friends. 
He was, however, very much vexed when he 
heard from them of the plans which John and 
Philip were engaged in for dispossessing him 



328 King Richard I. [l 193 - 

King Eichard arraigned before the German Diet. 

of his kingdom. He said, however, that he had 
very little fear of any thing that they could do. 

" My brother John," said he, " has not cour- 
age enough to accomplish any thing. He nev- 
er will get a kingdom by his valor." 

When he arrived at the town where the Diet 
was to be held, Richard had an interview with 
the emperor. The emperor had two objects in 
view in detaining Richard a prisoner. One 
was to prevent his having it in his power to 
help Tancred in keeping him, the emperor, out 
of possession of the kingdom of Sicily, and the 
other was to obtain, when he should set him at 
liberty at last, a large sum of money for a ran- 
som. When he told Richard what sum of 
money he would take, Richard refused the of- 
fer, saying that he would die rather than de- 
grade his crown by submitting to such terms, 
and impoverishing his kingdom in raising the 
money. 

The emperor then, in order to bring a heav- 
ier pressure to bear upon him, arraigned him 
before a Diet as a criminal. The following 
were the charges which he brought against him : 

1. That he had formed an alliance with Tan- 
cred, the usurper of Sicily, and thus made him- 
self a partaker in Tancred's crimes. 



1193.] Return to England. 329 



The six charges against the king. 



2. That he had invaded the dominions of 
Isaac, the Christian king of Cyprus, deposed 
the king, laid waste his dominions, and plun- 
dered his treasures ; and, finally, had sent the 
unhappy king to pine away and die in a Syrian 
dungeon. 

3. That, while in the Holy Land, he had of- 
fered repeated and unpardonable insults to the 
Archduke of Austria, and, through him, to the 
whole German nation. 

4. That he had been the cause of the failure 
of the Crusade, in consequence of the quarrels 
which he had excited between himself and the 
French king by his domineering and violent be- 
havior. 

5. That he had employed assassins to mur- 
der Conrad of Montferrat. 

6. That, finally, he had betrayed the Chris- 
tian cause by concluding a base truce with Sal- 
adin, and leaving Jerusalem in his hands. 

It is possible that the motive which led the 
emperor to make these charges against Richard 
was not any wish or design to have him con- 
victed and punished, but only to impress him 
more strongly with a sense of the danger of his 
situation, with a view of bringing him to con- 



330 King Richard I. [1193. 

lUchard's ransom to be divided between the emperor and the archduke. 

sent to the payment of a ransom. At any rate, 
the trial resulted in nothing but a negotiation 
in respect to the amount of ransom-money to 
be paid. 

Finally, a sum was agreed upon. Richard 
was sent back to his prison, and the abbots re- 
turned to England to see. what could be done 
in respect to raising the money. 

The people of England undertook the task 
not only with willingness, but with alacrity. 
The amount required was nearly a million of 
dollars, which, in those days, was a very large 
sum even for a kingdom to pay. The amount 
was to be paid in silver. Two thirds of it was 
to go to the emperor, and the other third to the 
archduke, who, when he sold his prisoner to the 
emperor, had reserved a right to a portion of the 
ransom-money whenever it should be paid. 

As soon as two thirds of the whole amount 
was paid, Richard was to be released on condi- 
tion of his giving hostages as security for the 
remainder. 

It took a long time to raise all this money, 
and various embarrassments were created in 
the course of the transaction by the emperor's 
bad faith, for he changed his terms from time 
to time, demanding more and more as he found 



1194.] Return to England. 331 

Richard finally reaches England. Flight of John. 

that the interest which the people of England 
took in the case would bear. At last, however, 
in February, 1194, about two years after Rich- 
ard was first imprisoned, a sufficient sum ar- 
rived to make up the first payment, and Rich- 
ard was set free. 

After meeting with various adventures on his 
journey home, he arrived on the English coast 
about the middle of March. 

The people of the country were filled with 
joy at hearing of his return, and they gave him 
a magnificent reception. One of the German 
barons who came home with him said, when he 
saw the enthusiasm of the people, that if the 
emperor had known how much interested in his 
fate the people of England were, he would not 
have let him off with so small a ransom. 

John was, of course, in great terror when he 
heard that Richard was coining home.* He 
abandoned every thing and fled to Normandy. 
Richard issued a decree that if he did not come 
back and give himself up within forty days, his 
estates should all be confiscated. John was 
thrown into a state of great perplexity by this, 
and did not know what to do. 

As soon as Richard had arranged his affairs 
a little in England, he determined to be crowned 



332 King Richard I. [1194. 

The expedition to Normandy. Ill treatment of Berengaria. 

again anew, as if his two years of captivity had 
broken the continuity of his reign. According- 
ly, a new coronation was arranged, and it was 
celebrated, as the first one had been, with the 
greatest pomp and splendor. 

After this Eichard determined to proceed to 
Normandy, with a view of there making war 
upon Philip and punishing him for his treach- 
ery. On his landing in Normandy, John came 
to him in a most abject and submissive man- 
ner, and, throwing himself at his feet, begged his 
forgiveness. Eleanora joined him in the peti- 
tion. Richard said that, out of regard to his 
mother's wishes, he would pardon him. 

" And I hope," said he, " that I shall as 
easily forget the injuries he has done me as he 
will forget my forbearance in pardoning him." 

Poor Berengaria was very illy rewarded for 
the devotion which she had manifested to her 
husband's interests, and for the efforts she had 
made to secure his release. She had come 
home from Rome a short time before her hus- 
band arrived, but he, when he came, manifested 
no interest in rejoining her. Instead of that, 
he connected himself with a number of wicked 
associates, both male and female, whom he had 
known before he went to the Holy Land, and 



1195.] Return to England. 333 

Richard's reckless immoralities. A warning. Sudden illness. 

lived a life of open profligacy with them, leav- 
ing Berengaria to pine in neglect, alone and 
forsaken. She was almost heart-broken to be 
thus abandoned, and several of the principal ec- 
clesiastics of the kingdom remonstrated very 
strongly with Richard for this wicked conduct. 
But these remonstrances were of no avail. 
Richard abandoned himself more and more to 
drunkenness and profligacy, until at length his 
character became truly infamous. 

One day in 1195, when he was hunting in 
the forest of Normandy, he was met by a her- 
mit, who boldly expostulated with him on ac- 
count of the wickedness of his life. The her- 
mit told him that, by the course he was pur- 
suing, he was grievously offending God, and 
that, unless he stopped short in his course and 
repented of his sins, he was doomed to be 
brought very soon to a miserable end by a spe- 
cial judgment from heaven. 

The king pretended not to pay much atten- 
tion to this prophecy, but not long afterward he 
was suddenly seized with a severe illness, and 
then he became exceedingly alarmed. He sent 
for all the monks and priests within ten miles 
around to come to him, and began to confess 
his sins with apparently very deep compunction 



334 King Richard I. [1195. 

Recovery. The peasant's discovery of hidden treasures. 

for them, and begged them to pray for God's 
forgiveness. He promised them solemnly that, 
if God would spare his life, he would return to 
Berengaria, and thenceforth be a true and faith- 
ful husband to her as long as he lived. 

He recovered from his sickness, and he so far 
kept the vows which he had made as to seek a 
reconciliation with Berengaria, and to live with 
her afterward, ostensibly at least, on good terms. 

For three years after this Richard was en- 
gaged in wars with Philip chiefly on the fron- 
tiers between France and Normandy. At last, 
in the midst of this contest, he suddenly came 
to his death under circumstances of a remarka- 
ble character. He had heard that a peasant in 
the territory of one of his barons, named Vide- 
mar, in plowing in the field, had come upon a 
trap-door in the ground which covered and con- 
cealed the entrance to a cave, and that, on going 
down into the cave, he had found a number of 
golden statues, with vases full of diamonds, and 
other treasures, and that the whole had been 
taken out and carried to the Castle Chaluz, be- 
longing to Videmar. Richard immediately pro- 
ceeded to Videmar, and demanded that the treas- 
ures should be given up to him as the sover- 
eign. Videmar replied that the rumor which 



1199.] Return to England. 335 

Videmar denies the story. Richard shot by Bertrand's arrow. 

had been spread was false ; that nothing had 
been found but a pot of old Roman coins, which 
Richard was welcome to have, if he desired 
them. Richard replied that he did not believe 
that story ; and that, unless Videmar delivered 
up the statues and jewels, he would storm the 
castle. Videmar repeated that he had no stat- 
ues and jewels, and so Richard brought up his 
troops and opened the siege. 

During the siege, a knight named Bertrand 
de Gordon, standing on the wall, and seeing 
Richard on the ground below in a position 
where he thought he could reach him with an 
arrow, drew his bow and took aim. As he shot 
it he prayed to God to speed it well. The ar- 
row struck Richard in the shoulder. In trying 
to draw it out they broke the shaft, thus leav- 
ing the barb in the wound. Richard was borne 
to his tent, and a surgeon was sent for to cut 
out the barb. This made the wound greater, 
and in a short time inflammation set in, mortifi- 
cation ensued, and death drew nigh. When he 
found that all was over with him, and that his 
end had come, he was overwhelmed with re- 
morse, and he died at length in anguish and 
despair. 

His death took place in the spring of 1199. 



336 King Richakd I. [1199. 

King Richard's reign. The character of the "lion-hearted." 

He had reigned over England ten years, though 
not one of these years had he spent in that 
kingdom. 

Berengaria lived afterward for thirty years. 

King Richard the First is known in history 
as the lion-hearted, and well did he deserve the 
name. It is characteristic of the lion to be 
fierce, reckless, and cruel, intent only in pur- 
suing the aims which his own lordly and im- 
petuous appetites and passions demand, with- 
out the least regard to any rights of others that 
he may trample under foot, or to the sufferings 
that he may inflict on the innocent and help- 
less. This was Richard's character precisely, 
and he was proud of it. His glory consisted 
in his reckless and brutal ferocity. He pre- 
tended to be the champion and defender of the 
cause of Christ, but it is hardly possible to con- 
ceive of a character more completely antagonis- 
tic than his to the just, gentle, and forgiving 
spirit which the precepts of Jesus are calculated 
to form. 



THE END. 

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